


Under The Egyptian Sun

by Huntress79



Category: The Mummy (1999), White Collar
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Historical, Artwork by kanarek13, Multi, Mummy AU, White Collar Big Bang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-18
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-05-02 04:32:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 44,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5234219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Huntress79/pseuds/Huntress79
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What do you get when you mix an eager Egyptologist/Librarian at the Cairo Museum (with a longing for adventure), her husband (with a slight penchant for attracting bad luck), and a dashing French Foreign Legionnaire  (who just happens to be at the right places at the wrong time) with one the greatest legends of Ancient Egypt? An adventure none of them will ever forget.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Mummy AU. Based heavily on the first Mummy movie (with Brendan Fraser). There will be some dialogues taken straight from the script, though the speaker will differ at some point. Fills the “Reincarnation” square on my Gen Prompt Bingo Card. Betaed by sherylyn, and the magnificent artwork was made by kanarek13.

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Prologue – The Things We Do For Love

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_Thebes, Egypt_

_2,100 B.C._

The city, heart of Pharaoh Seti’s kingdom, is painted in the dark golden rays of the setting sun. Another warm summer night is about to come over the city. On a plateau near the bank of the Nile, overlooking the city, stands the palace of the Pharaoh. If you look closer, you see a handsome man standing on one of the numerous balconies. Meet Imhotep, High Priest of Osiris, one of the closest confidantes of the Pharaoh.

He truly is a handsome man. Dark, wavy hair, equally dark eyes that bore into the deepest depths of your soul. Strong muscles under a spotless olive-tanned skin. Suddenly, there’s motion behind him. The curtains separating the bedroom and the balcony from the rest of the room part and reveal a beautiful woman. Long dark brown hair, a slim figure. Her whole body covered in painted symbols, creating the illusion that she’s wearing a skintight dress. Her upper arms, fingers and ankles are adorned with delicate gold, gem-encrusted jewelry. Meet Anck-su-namun, the Pharaoh’s wife. A stunning beauty who captures the attention and the heart of everyone who ever laid his eyes on her.

But only a fraction of her own heart belongs to Seti. The bigger part is taken by Imhotep, ever since the day she met the man for the first time – which was the day of her wedding to Seti. They started an affair, and even though Seti threatened every man who ever dared to touch Anck-su-namun with the worst punishment ever known to man, they couldn’t stop seeing each other. And like so many times before, Anck-su-namun walks up to Imhotep and wraps her arms around his chest, smearing the painted symbols on her front. Imhotep turns around, his hands starting to roam her perfect body. Within a heartbeat, their lips are tangled in a furious battle for dominance. The air is heavy with lust, and the growing silence of the dawning night is interrupted by the moans of the two star-crossed lovers.

Suddenly, the outer door of the bedroom chamber is forced open. Only now, Imhotep’s priests leave their places in the shadows of the room outside the curtains, and try to stop the intruders from going any further. But the priests are no match for the soldiers spilling into the room. Tall men with blue tattoos all over their bodies overpower the priests, keeping them in place while Pharaoh Seti enters the room, looking around until he spots Anck-su-namun and Imhotep through the curtains.

Pharaoh Seti’s heart breaks as he sees his beautiful, yet unfaithful wife in a lip-lock with the other man. He’d had a suspicion that Anck-su-namun might cheat on him, but there was a difference between suspecting and actually seeing it with your own eyes. Said eyes, as dark as Imhotep’s, harden as his soldiers drag the two from the balcony in front of him. His blood begins to boil as his eyes fall on the smeared paint on Anck-su-namun’s most intimate regions. This was his to take – and his alone.

Giving her a final hard stare, he turns his head to see the rival for the first time. When he realizes it’s his High Priest, the rage in him reaches a new height. But before he can bark any orders to his soldiers, both Anck-su-namun and Imhotep manage to struggle free. Imhotep snatches the sword from one of the soldiers and attacks Seti, who blocks the attack with his own sword. Seti turns around, fully intent on killing Imhotep. He raises his sword, when suddenly he falls over, face first into the floor, a dagger sticking out of his back. Anck-su-namun looks somewhat pleased, but only for a second. As the Pharaoh’s soldiers finally snap out of their shock, she grabs Imhotep and pushes him, with the help of his priests, out of the balcony, her eyes holding a plea. They both know that she will be punished for killing the Pharaoh, and only Imhotep will be able to bring her back. The last thing the High Priest sees before his men pull him away is Anck-su-namun pulling the dagger from Seti’s lifeless body – and plunging it into her own.

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Some time later: we have left the city behind and follow now a trail to a sacred place in the desert. Leading the trek is Imhotep, his face filled with dread. As soon as they reach their destination, slaves put Anck-su-namun’s body in the sand, along with five gem-encrusted jars, each of them containing one of her vital organs.

As the High Priest, Imhotep is about to curse her body, which is the appropriate punishment for killing the Pharaoh. But Imhotep has a plan, a backdoor that would enable him to bring his lover back to him.

He proceeds with reading the curse from the golden _Book Of The Living_. Strange lights engulf Anck-su-namun’s mummified body, lifting it up from the ground before dropping it back, leaving it in a twisted position. The slaves bury the mummy, but it’s the last task they ever perform. Common soldiers kill them with their spears – and are subsequently killed themselves by the priests. As by Ancient Egyptian law, not a single unholy person was allowed to know the burial site. The only remaining soldiers, the blue-tattooed Mumia, start to trek back to Thebes. As soon as the last of them has vanished behind a dune, Imhotep’s priests stop stabbing the soldiers and race over to Anck-su-namun’s grave, digging her out again.

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Another change of location. Imhotep and his priests are in chariots, racing through the desert towards Hamunaptra, the City of the Dead. Once they stop, the priests pull the mummy from a hearse and carry it into the temple, along with the canopic jars.

Inside the temple, they prepare her for the resurrection, while Imhotep walks over to a huge statue of Anubis. At the bottom, he reveals a hidden compartment. He pulls out a book, which looks similar to the _Book Of The Living_. Only this time, the book is made of obsidian instead of gold. This is the _Book Of The Dead_ , and this one should help him resurrect Anck-su-namun.

Imhotep starts the process to reverse the curse and is about to return her organs, when all of a sudden, the Mumia soldiers storm in and once again capture them all. They are brought over to another chamber, which happens to be the one of an embalmer.

For defying the will of the gods, Imhotep and his priests are about to face the worst punishment Egypt has ever seen. The priests are mummified alive, with Imhotep forced to watch helplessly. Their screams echo around the room and will probably haunt the area for all eternity. Last but not least, Imhotep himself is punished, condemned with the Hom Dai, the worst of all ancient curses. It will be the only time ever that this particular curse is brought upon anyone.

His tongue is pulled out and fed to the dogs before he is being wrapped tightly in bandages, only his eyes, nose and mouth remaining free of the bandages. He is placed in a wooden crate, then one of the embalmers empties a bucket full of scarabs into the crate. The scarabs attack Imhotep almost immediately, bringing the full effect of the curse over him. Since they crawl into his mouth, they are seen as eaten by him, and that will result in him staying alive forever. And the scarabs will stay alive forever as well, caused by them eating him.

The coffin is closed and put into a heavy sarcophagus, which the Head Mumia closes with a strange looking key. Then the sarcophagus is put into one of the pits in the temple, filled to the crest with a disgusting muck. They will make sure that no one ever will bring Imhotep back. The curse also includes that if he should ever rise again, he will be a walking disease, bringing with him all known plagues. And if he should subsequently succeed in rising Anck-su-namun as well – Apocalypse, here we come.

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	2. Chapter 1 – Of Legionnaires, Librarians And Keys

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_Hamunaptra 1925_

Over the last 4,000 years, approximately, the once proud city of Hamunaptra has decayed, only ruins remain of the temple once standing here. Among the ruins, about 200 French Foreign Legionnaires are preparing for an onslaught. Up on a wall, we see a man, the kepi typical of the Legionnaires sitting jauntily on his head. Meet Neal Caffrey, self-appointed adventurer with a bit of a bad luck. A dashing, handsome man. Under the kepi, we see a mass of dark brown, almost black, locks. His startling blue eyes seem to have a life of their own, since they sparkle with fire and electricity in anticipation of the upcoming fight. Beneath his sun-kissed skin, taught muscles are strung with the same anticipation. This man likes to fight, and everybody should see it from afar.

Next to him, hidden behind a small section of a wall, is Mozzie. The short, bespectacled man is Neal’s friend, though the young American is sure that he would turn him in in a heartbeat if that meant that Mozzie would get something out of it. Unlike Neal, Mozzie is afraid of battles, and from the corner of his eye, Neal can see him squirm already, though the fight hasn’t even started yet.

“Moz! Hand me your bandolier!”

In the distance, we see a horde of horse riders approaching the Legionnaires. The ground shakes slightly under the hooves, and every single one of the Legionnaires can feel it as it gets stronger as the riders come closer and closer. At last, Mozzie hands over the cartridge belt, and Neal throws it on, crossing it with his own.

“I suggest we surrender,” Mozzie says, fear heavy in his voice.

Neal chooses to ignore his suggestion, instead he holds out his hand again.

“Your pistol, Moz!” He finally looks at his friend. “You’ll never use it anyway.”

He gets the gun as well, and puts it into his belt, next to his own. The riders are closing in on the ruins, and we see Neal and Mozzie deserting their place up on the wall to join the rest of the Legionnaires. Knowing that this might be their last day on Earth, Neal wants to know something.

“Hey, Moz! How did you end up in the Legion?”

“I stole some goods from a synagogue.” Neal looks quizzically at him. “You know that I speak several languages, seven to be exact.” Neal nods. “And all the holy places are not really secured anyway. Only some priests, and they are not the best fighters around.” He pauses and wipes his forehead. “As if I would ever need to fight for anything.”

The thundering sound of hooves gets louder and louder, and now the soldiers can even hear the first scimitars being drawn, a nasty, metallic sound.

Neal, Mozzie and some of the other soldiers move from their place down a stone ramp, bringing themselves closer to the incoming riders.

“And what about you, Neal? What brought you here?”

“Ah, nothing too fancy.”

“Did you kill somebody?” Neal shakes his head, but his eyes are saying that he’s strongly considering it right now. “Kidnapping? Robbery?” Mozzie continues to ask.

“No, nothing like that.”

“Then what on God’s green Earth are you doing here in the Legion?”

The fight is about to start as the riders bring their scimitars in a ready-to-strike position, just as the soldiers position their guns. Neal turns around to face Mozzie, and for the first time, we see him smiling a bright smile.

“I just wanted to have a good time.”

Before Mozzie can say anything, Neal leaps out of his hiding place, his gun drawn at the first riders coming up on him. The battle gets into full swing, and pretty soon, the whole place is covered in a cloud of dust, making fighting even harder. Both sides manages to kill soldiers of the other, but most of the Legionnaires, led by their Commander, just turn round and run out of the ruins as quickly as possible. Neal sees this and tries to take charge of the rest of the Legion. They succeed to take out some of the Tuaregs, but then the attackers change tactic and engage the soldiers in hand-to-hand combat. At some point, Neal has to ditch his rifle and go for the guns in his belt. Unfortunately, both guns are almost empty, and so he has to take to the ground running in order to survive. He manages to get to the doorway of the temple, but Mozzie, survival instinct switched fully on, literally closes the door on him.

“Mozzie, I’m gonna get you for this!”

Once again, Neal takes off running, weaving his way through the ruins. The Tuaregs follow him on their horses. Suddenly, Neal skids to a stop, turns around and faces the attackers, ready to fight. The riders raise their weapons, ready to finish him off. But then, Neal makes a sign with his hand, causing the horses to go wild suddenly. Nobody knows what’s going on, but in the end, it somehow saves Neal’s life.

The whole altercation is watched by another group of riders, who are standing up on a ridge overlooking the ruins. In front of the riders, a stunning woman is standing. Meet Dian Bey, the current leader of the Mumia. Like her ancestors back in Seti’s times, her skin is covered in strange blue tattoos, and if that wasn’t scary enough, the two scimitars at her sides are driving the point home.

Dian and her people see Neal stumbling from the ruins, and for a fraction of a second, Neal and Dian lock gazes. What Neal doesn’t know is that Dian and her people are still watching Imhotep’s grave, even after more than 4,000 years.

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_Museum Of Antiques_

_Cairo_

The place to be when one was interested in the long, exciting history of Egypt. The rooms are filled with statues of the old gods, with gem-encrusted sarcophaguses, with ancient weapons and jewelry. More than 5,000 years of history compressed into one large building.

But like many other buildings, this one has a dark place too. Deep down below the various showrooms lies the stacks, which is basically one large room filled to the brim with rows of shelves, holding uncounted books about the Egyptian history.

In one of the rows, a young woman is standing on top of a tall ladder. Meet Elizabeth Burke, one of the few women capable of reading and understanding the ancient languages. Today, she’s wearing a long, simple dress, her glasses and, just like on any other day, her long brown hair tied up in a bun. And yet one can see that beneath this simple façade lies a stunning beauty.

Right now, she’s holding a stack of books, trying to place them back where they really belong. With most of them, it works out just fine, but the second-to-last one seems to be misplaced.

With a frown on her face, Elizabeth turns the thick book around, intent on reading the title.

“Tuthmosis? You’re definitely in the wrong place, my dear!”

Looking around at the long shelves surrounding her, she finally spots the row labeled “T” right behind her. Instead of going down the ladder (which is quite a ways down), Elizabeth opts for trying to get the book over to its rightful place from her current position. She almost manages it, but just as she is about to put the book into the shelf, her ladder pulls away from the other shelf. Within minutes, Elizabeth does more than a 180 with the ladder, until it stops itself on another bookshelf.

Elizabeth takes a deep breath; apparently, she’s lucked out. But just as she’s breathing out, the bookshelf falls away from her and she only can watch as shelf after shelf crashes into each other, like giant dominoes. Uncounted books are flung out of the shelves in the process, and Elizabeth can’t do anything to stop it.

When it finally does, it is thanks to one of the far walls of the room. Sensing that nothing more is about to happen, Elizabeth finally reopens her eyes. The damage, the mess, around her is huge, and dread is filling her up.

“Oh, boy!”

But before she even can hatch up a plan on how to clean up this mess, Reese Hughes, the curator of the museum, storms in. He was in one of the showrooms when he heard the noises coming from the stacks, and of course, he feared the worst.

He takes only one look at the chaos in front of him before turning to Elizabeth, an angry look on his face.

“Care to explain?” He motions to the turned-up shelves. “Compared to you, young lady, the ancient curses were a joy!”

Elizabeth suddenly feels like a ten-year-old, standing in front of her principal back at the boarding school in England. A slight panic is rising up inside of her, and though she tries not to, she only can stutter out an explanation while she scrambles over to the first heap of books and begins to pick them up.

“I’m sorry, it was an accident.” She turns around to face the curator. “And I promise I will put them all back myself.”

Some of the initial anger dissipates from the curator’s worn face, but he is still angry enough that he needs to vent a bit more.

“Accident? It was an accident when Pharaoh Ramses destroyed most of Syria.” He takes a breath and points at Elizabeth. “You, on the other hand, are a real catastrophe!” He throws his hands in the air, as if he was asking the lord for some heavenly assistance. “Why did I even agree to put up with you?”

Elizabeth stops what she’s doing, which is just putting the books into nice stacks, and turns back to face the curator.

“Oh, I think you put up with me since I’m (a) the only person probably in this whole big country who can properly code and catalogue this all,” she encircles the library with her hand, “(b) I can decipher all kinds of hieroglyphs and hieratic, and most of all, (c) I can read and write Ancient Egyptian.” She takes a breath. “Did I miss anything, Reese?”

Try as he might, Reese Hughes can’t really argue with her on that. Nonetheless, he has a better answer for her.

“No, the reason why I put up with you is lying six feet under over in the United States, going by the names of Alan and Cleo Mitchell.” He can see that she’s remembering her parents as well. “They were not only good friends to me, they also were wonderful people, and some of the finest patrons this museum has ever seen.” He turns to leave the room. “Now straighten up this mess!”

Before Elizabeth can return anything, he’s gone, rendering the large room silent except for her breathing. But all of a sudden, a strange noise breaks the silence.

“Hello! Anybody there?”

If anything, Elizabeth wasn’t one to be scared easily. But combine that with the adrenaline rush finally dissipating and the brought up memories of her parents, finishing that task was a bit easier.

Once again, the sound can be heard, and this time Elizabeth manages to decipher it better. It resembles feet shuffling slowly across the floor, and if she’s correct, it’s coming from one of the bigger showrooms, the so-called ʻRamsesseumʼ.

While heading over to the room, Elizabeth calls out to some of the museum workers, but none of them are answering. The room itself is quite dark, with only some torches shining their warm light on the various items from Pharaoh Ramses’ regency.

For a third time, Elizabeth can hear the sound, but this time, it’s closing in on her. Ready to solve this mystery, she grabs a torch and starts to explore the room. The large statues of Horus and Anubis watch her as she makes her way deeper into the room, passing crates filled with ancient artifacts, more statues, and sarcophaguses. Suddenly, she sees that one of them is apparently open.

Her curiosity gets the better of her and she steps closer, intent on looking inside. As she does, the rotted remains of a mummy suddenly sit up, causing her to scream, drop the torch and finally back away.

Just as Elizabeth is about to catch her breath and calming her racing heart, she hears a man laughing somewhere around her. With disbelieving and narrowing eyes, she watches as the same man is crawling out from behind the mummy. Meet Peter Burke, her husband, apparently more than just a bit buzzed.

Finally, anger replaces the fear inside of her, and with her hands on her hips, she lays into him.

“You really think this is funny, you… you…”

“Drunkard? Fool? Heard them all before, hon.” Peter finally gets out of the sarcophagus and faces her. “For a woman as smart as you are, you’re not that good at coming up with new names.”

Though they are just standing a few feet apart, Elizabeth has trouble deciphering every single word from her husband of the last ten years, which is quite an indication of his inebriation.

“Well, you can’t have it all.” She plucks a cigar from the mummy. “Be glad that you only scared me. If Hughes would have seen that…” She holds the cigar up for emphasis.

“What? Are you accusing me of having no respect for the dead?” Elizabeth nods. “Right now, joining them is quite an interesting thought.”

His words shock her, but Elizabeth recovers quickly.

“Maybe it would be better. That way, you can’t destroy my career, like you did with your own.”

Now it’s Peter’s turn to be shocked. Guess he really overdid it this time with his pranks.

“You know I would never do that.” El’s face softens for a fraction. “But I’ll have you know that my career might be revived in the near future.”

“And how do you think you will manage that?” For emphasis, Elizabeth raises an eyebrow, challenging him.

Peter sits down on a large trunk and starts to rummage in his pockets.

“With this one here.”

“Probably just another worthless trinket, Peter. Reese already told me the last time I tried to show him one that I will get fired for that.” She sits down next to him, her anger for him pranking her (again) slowly dissipating. “And in case you haven’t noticed before, I love this job here.”

“Oh, I did notice. Ha!” A triumphant smile spreads on his face, and with a flourish, he presents the ancient box to his wife. They don’t know it at the moment, but it’s the collapsed key to Imhotep’s sarcophagus.

Elizabeth immediately snatches it from his fingers, holding it up to inspect it closer.

“Where did you get it?”

If Peter was sure about anything these days, it was that his wife had a weakness for a certain Pharaoh – Seti I.

“On a dig down in Thebes.”

He hears Elizabeth mumbling to herself, and even though his Ancient Egyptian is more than a bit rusted, he knows that she’s already trying to decipher the hieroglyphs and hieratics etched in the surface.

“And? What do you say?”

Elizabeth only hears him with half an ear. The box has captured her attention. She moves it around this way and that way, trying to figure it out. Suddenly, the box unfolds itself, transforming into the usual shape of the key. It also reveals its hidden treasure, a small, folded piece of papyrus. Elizabeth carefully pulls it out and unfolds it, revealing an ancient map.

For the first time since he gave it to her, Elizabeth looks up and into the warm brown eyes of her husband, a smile spreading on her face.

“Hon, I think you really found something this time.”

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Sometime later finds Peter and Elizabeth in Hughes’ office. The curator has a jeweler’s eyepiece to his right eye, inspecting the small piece of papyrus closely. Elizabeth stands behind him, excitement rolling off her in waves.

“Can you see the cartouche over here?” She points to one of the corners of the papyrus. “I’m absolutely sure that this is the official royal seal of Pharaoh Seti the First.”

While Hughes is enjoying the apparent excitement and joy lacing her voice, he also knows her temper and eagerness. If he confirms her suspicions right away, he might send her and her husband on an unexpected adventure – and he fears that none of them will survive it.

“Perhaps.”

“Perhaps?” Elizabeth echoes, the excitement in her voice replaced by incredulity. “Reese, if I know one thing, it’s Seti the First.”

“You might be right about that, but you also know that he built his seal based on those of his predecessors.”

It’s actually more of a theory than a confirmed truth, but it’s enough to take an edge off both their excitement. Finally, Peter, sitting opposite Hughes, joins the conversation.

“I mean, I have heard the name Seti the First before,” he glances at Elizabeth, “but what else do I need to know about this guy? Was he rich?”

Before Hughes even can take a breath, Elizabeth launches into an explanation, ready to show off her vast knowledge about this certain Pharaoh.

“He was the last Pharaoh of the Old Kingdom, and the ancient legends have him labeled as the wealthiest Pharaoh of them all.”

While rolling his eyes about these two fellows, Hughes picks up the map. Elizabeth sees that and focuses on the curator.

“I’ve already dated it.” He gives her quite a surprised look. “It’s about four thousand years old.” She says this with a lot of conviction to her voice, she’s absolutely sure about it. Before Hughes can say anything, she points to some hieratics on the map.

“And they indicate that this is…,” she takes a deep breath, both for effect and calming her racing nerves, “a map of Hamunaptra.”

“Nonsense, girl. We both are scholars, and we both know that Hamunaptra is just a myth, a well-made legend only for treasure hunters,” Hughes answers. “Which none of us are, by the way.”

Peter finally realizes what his wife just said, and he gets up from his seat, his face a mixture of excitement, the starting effects of a hangover, and confusion.

“Wait a moment – are we talking about THE Hamunaptra??”

“Yeah,” Elizabeth says while daring Hughes with a look to contradict her, “The City of the Dead.” She locks gazes with her husband. “Also known as the place where the early Pharaohs of Egypt were said to have hidden their wealth.”

“Wasn’t that in a big treasure chamber beneath the sand?” Peter asks. Elizabeth nods. “As far as I can remember the story, the whole necropolis was set to disappear beneath the dunes, with as much as one command from the Pharaoh.”

“Yeah, and all the scholars know is that the whole city somehow vanished about 2,100 B.C. Since then, mysteries are all that’s left of it.”

Neither of them notice Hughes picking up the map again and holding it closer to the candle burning on his desk.

“Elizabeth, Peter, you both are Americans. Don’t you know the saying of all being just fairy tales and hokum?”

They both turn around, just in time to see one of the map’s edges catching ʻaccidentallyʼ on fire, before Hughes drops it to the floor. Peter quickly drops to his knees and puts the fire out. When he comes up again, he holds the map up for everybody to see. To his dismay, a good third of the map, mainly the one with Hamunaptra, is missing now.

“What did you do?” Peter looks at the map again and winces. “You burned off the part with Hamunaptra on it.”

“And believe me, Peter, it’s best for all parties involved.” He pauses. “I’ve seen so many young men wasting the best part of their lives in searching for Hamunaptra. None of them has ever found it, and most of them have never, ever returned from the desert.” He looks from Peter to Elizabeth. “When I took you in, I gave a promise to your father – that I would not only give you a job, but also look out for you. And I know that you are more adventurous then a lot of men I know.”

“Still,” Peter says with dejection in his voice, “you had no right to kill my map.”

“Which I think is a fake.” Hughes makes a motion to grab the key lying on the table, but Elizabeth snatches it up, an angry, suspicious look on her face. Before Hughes can say anything or even think about trying to justify his actions, Elizabeth and Peter are out of the room.

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	3. Chapter 2 – Team Hamunaptra – The Beginning

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_Cairo Prison_

_Gallows Courtyard_

A prison is, under no circumstances, a place where you would expect a well-educated woman like Elizabeth Burke. And yet, here she is, walking across the courtyard with Peter, catching the attention of every scumbag in here, including the warden who escorts them. But she doesn’t notice it, she’s way too busy with being angry at her husband for lying to her about the way he acquired the box.

“You told me you found it in Thebes!!” she hisses to him.

“I was mistaken?” Peter answers with a bit of hope that she might believe this.

“No, you plainly lied to me!”

“I would never lie to you, you know that. I just might have omitted the true story.”

“Which is what? You stole it from one of your drinking buddies at the Casbah?”

“Yeah, something like that. Though I would prefer if we could call it pick-pocketing instead.”

“Matter of interpretation, if you ask me.”

In the meantime, the three were outside the holding pen, and, after opening the gate, the warden ushers the Burkes inside.

“So, what is this guy in prison for?” Elizabeth asks while taking a look around.

“Beats me,” the warden replies, “I even asked him that myself.”

“And what answer did he give you?” Peter inquires.

“He just wanted to have a good time,” the warden replies with a shake of his head. Before either of the Burkes can say anything, the opposite doors fly open. Two guards drag in a man in chains, with two more bringing up the rear. The guards shove him up to the bars separating his side from the rest of the room, and from their spot near the door, Elizabeth and Peter can see that he’s been here for a while. The dark locks are down to his shoulders, an equally dark beard, though with some grey spots, almost fully covering his face. Along his hands, his lower arms and his neck are visible bruises, rendering Elizabeth both shocked and disgusted by his appearance.

“A filthy criminal?” She turns her gaze from the man in front of her to Peter. “You really have a hand for picking your friends.”

Peter can’t help but groan, but deep down, he knows that his wife is right, once again. And yet, he feels that this man deserves a second chance, that he can do better than that.

Neal in the meantime takes a closer look at these two strangers asking for him. The woman is a stunner, the long brown locks reminding him of those on his former fiancée, one Kate Moreau. He can’t help but think that the man, who he somehow remembers from one night at the Casbah, got really lucky with her – if they are an item, that is. Settling his gaze on Peter, Neal dares to speak.

“So, my friend, who’s the stunning beauty?”

Peter’s eyes go wide, and Neal is sure it’s not for the compliment itself, but more for him being the one to say it. He’s already behind bars, it can’t get any worse. But the surprise on Peter’s face is gone as quick as it came.

“She’s my wife.”

Neal lets out a low whistle. Good thing that his people-reading skills didn’t suffer from his imprisonment.

“Yeah? Got to say, you got lucky, sahib.”

Elizabeth only can watch their interaction with wide eyes. Sure, she got one or another compliment over the years, but somehow she can’t remember it sounding so sincere like it did coming from the prisoner. And so she only notices, with some delay, that the warden is about to leave the room, muttering something about being back in a moment. Neal also notices that, and after hearing the explanation, the sarcastic side of him decides to pipe up.

“I’m trembling with anticipation.”

Which causes one of the guards to club him across the head, resulting in his face bouncing off the metal bars. Still having some dignity left in him, Neal shows no pain, but the look he gives the guard speaks volumes, reminding everyone that looks truly could kill.

Elizabeth uses the altercation to step closer to Neal, to the bars. She needs to know more about the box, and she doesn’t want the guards to hear it at all.

“Mister, we found your box.” She sees a kind of recognition flittering across Neal’s face, and for the first time since stepping into the room, she sees the electric blue of his eyes. “And we want to ask you about it.”

“No, you don’t.”

A simple sentence, and yet it renders Elizabeth speechless, if only for a short time.

“Oh, we don’t? How do you want to know that?”

Ignoring the guards for a moment, Neal turns around, fully facing Elizabeth for the first time, causing two sets of blue eyes to lock.

“No, dear, you and your husband just want to know what I know about Hamunaptra.”

“How do you know about the connection to Hamunaptra?” Elizabeth asks, with just the right amount of coyness to her voice.

Neal doesn’t even register her playing coy. Just the mention of the place is enough for his brain to bring up the memories, and so both Elizabeth and Peter are quite surprised when they see a flitter of darkness crossing his face before he answers.

“I know that… because I was there. I found it there.”

“Who’ll guarantee that this isn’t just a nice white lie?” Peter asks, suspicion clearly recognizable in his voice.

Before any of them can react, Neal has decked Peter, square in the jaw. Which earns him another club in the head, but like before, the only reaction the guard gets is a nasty look. While Elizabeth bends down to help Peter up from the floor, her eyes remain on Neal, her curiosity getting the better of her.

“So you say you really were there? In Hamunaptra?”

“I just decked your husband!” Neal shoots back.

“Oh, that,” Elizabeth returns while looking from Peter to Neal. “It’s just that I know my husband, probably better than he does himself,” she adds with a shrug, causing Neal to smile. Maybe there was more to her than meets the eye.

“Yeah, I was there,” Neal finally says as an answer to her initial question.

“You swear?”

“Listen, lady, I might be a bit of a scoundrel, but I never, ever would lie to a woman, especially not to one as beautiful as you are.”

Elizabeth blushes, and Neal feels a bit of pride swelling in his chest. Seems he hasn’t lost his touch for charming the ladies as well.

“So what did you find there?”

“Sand,” Neal deadpans. “And death.”

Suddenly, the warden returns, and Elizabeth leans closer to Neal.

“Tell me. Tell me the way to Hamunaptra.”

“You really want to know?” Neal asks, a plan already forming in his head.

“Yes.” Elizabeth steps even closer, her face only inches away from his, two pairs of blue eyes meeting. “Yes, I really want to know.” She leans her face up to the bars, and Neal seizes the opportunity to kiss her full on the lips.

“Then get me out of here.”

Before Elizabeth can react to the stunning kiss, the guards first club Neal before grabbing him and dragging him out of the room. Still reeling from the boldness of this man, Elizabeth turns to the warden.

“Where are they taking him?”

“Out in the courtyard, to be hanged.” He smiles a leering smile, and Elizabeth has to put up every ounce of strength for not to recoil from his bad teeth and breath. “Apparently, he had the good time he was speaking of.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A short time later, they are all back outside, in the gallows courtyard. Hundreds of prisoners watch with a mixture of fear and indifference as Neal is dragged up to the gallows and the hanging noose is fixated around his neck. Up on a balcony, Elizabeth and Peter step out behind the warden. As soon as the prisoners see her, they all go silent, and Elizabeth can’t shake the thought that she is to them what an antelope is to a hungry lion – fresh meat.

“No women allowed,” the warden says, matter-of-factly.

“I’m half-American, half-English,” Elizabeth returns, and somehow, this cryptic answer is enough for the warden, as he just shrugs and sits down. Peter and Elizabeth follow his example, all the time closely watched by Neal, who sends a plea up to her with his eyes.

“One hundred pounds for you if you let him go,” Elizabeth says suddenly while she inches closer to the warden.

“Exactly what I would pay, just to see him hang,” the warden returns.

“Two hundred pounds.” If the warden thinks she’s one to give up easily, well, here’s a news update for him.

“Proceed!” the warden yells down to his guards, all but ignoring her attempts to cut Neal a deal.

“Three hundred pounds,” Elizabeth raises again.

Down at the gallows, Neal can hear every single word of their conversation, mostly due to the fact that the other prisoners are so silent that you could hear a pin drop.

“Any last requests?” the hangman asks Neal all of a sudden.

“Yeah.” Neal turns his head as much as possible, looking the hangman straight into the eye. “I’d like you to let me go.”

But instead, the hangman grabs the lever to open the trapdoor, and for the first time since Hamunaptra, Neal truly fears for his life.

Up on the balcony, Elizabeth still tries to buy him free, and she’s already up to four hundred pounds, but still, the warden can’t be convinced to let him go.

“Five hundred pounds,” Elizabeth says as a last offer, her eyes switching between Neal down in the courtyard and the warden, who all of a sudden puts a hand on her leg.

“And what else?”

Elizabeth is shocked. Sure, she had some offers over the years, despite her attempts to not attract anyone, but this one here goes a bit too far. Determined, she quickly shoves his hand away, but all that she manages is that the warden signals the hangman to pull the lever. Neal drops through the hole, and Elizabeth only can cry “No!”

But somehow, Lady Luck seems to have a bit of a favor for Neal, and so, when the rope finally pulls taught, his neck doesn’t break, which causes the other prisoners to almost go crazy as soon as the warden exclaims this.

Elizabeth watches, horrified, as Neal struggles to breathe, which more and more turns into gagging. She finally turns around and whispers to the warden.

“He knows the way to Hamunaptra.”

The warden turns away from the scene in front in him, looking her straight in the eye.

“You’re lying!”

“I would never, I swear!”

Neal is still struggling, and if the increasing redness of his face is anything to go by, time (and breath) is running out on him. Up on the balcony, the warden is still contemplating Elizabeth’s offer.

“Are you really saying that this piece of crap down there knows how to find the City of the Dead?”

“Yeah,” Elizabeth says, not without some confidence to her voice, “and if you have him cut down, we are willing to give you ten percent.”

“Fifty.”

Elizabeth is a bit shocked, but she’s been here in Egypt long enough to know their tactics, especially when striking a deal.

“Twenty,” she returns, her gaze trained on Neal, who still struggles and pleads to her with his eyes.

“Forty,” the warden says, and for a heartbeat, Elizabeth hesitates.

“Just… give… him… please…” Neal forces out of his throat, and everyone now realizes that breathing is indeed a problem for him.

“Twenty-five percent, and we’re done.”

The warden answers her with a smile before yelling an order in Arabic. Heartbeats later, the sound of a scimitar echoes around the courtyard, and Elizabeth watches with relief as the hangman cuts the rope. Neal drops to the ground, gagging and gulping in air, before looking up at Elizabeth, who smiles back at him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later, Hughes has a late night meeting with three men in his office – three of the Mumia with their typical blue-tinted faces. The room is lit only by candles, which gives the whole situation a creepy spin.

“She must die,” Hughes says, rather matter-of-factly, as if he was talking about the weather.

“No,” one of the Mumia returns, “if she’s anything like the others, she will find her end in the desert anyway.”

“I don’t think so,” Hughes says. “Apart from that, she has seen too much, knows too much.” He leans across the desk. “And most of all: she not only has the map, she also has the key.”

For the first time in their meeting, fear flitters across the faces of the Mumia, before one of them speaks up.

“She has the key? The lost key?”

Hughes nods, his expression turns even darker. “Yes, and that’s why we have to stop her. If we fail, it will be the end of us all. No one has got this close, and no one should ever do.”

The fear in the Mumia’s faces is replaced with determination. “Then we will kill her, and everyone who is with her as well,” the lead Mumia says.

“And you will burn the map and get the key back to safety,” Hughes adds.

The lead Mumia nods. “It will be done.” Then, as if he has an afterthought, he continues. “What about the American expedition? They will leave tomorrow as well, and might as well have the same goal as her,” he says with just a hint of worry to his voice.

But Hughes doesn’t seem to share the warrior’s worry. “Forget them. They have nothing, and without a map or anything to guide them, how on Earth should they be able to find Hamunaptra?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A new day dawns on Egypt, and despite the early hour, the Port of Giza is bustling with activity. Merchants are setting up shop, ready to praise their goods to the many travelers coming to the port to get further down the River Nile.

Safely anchored in the port is a passenger barge, but on a closer look, one can see that the personnel are preparing for leaving the port soon. Stocks are refilled, small things are repaired. At the bow of the barge, four men stand, engaged in deep conversation. Looking closer, one of them turns out to be Mozzie, Neal’s friend. He is surrounded by three Americans, Matthew Keller, Philip Kramer and Kyle Collins.

“As I said, it’s three days down the Nile, then two more days on camels, my friends,” Mozzie explains.

“Well, I hope for you that there’s really something out there, otherwise all the money we’re paying you is worth nothing.”

Keller says it matter-of-factly, but Mozzie can’t help but shudder a bit inwardly upon detecting the cold edge to his voice. Of all people, this man really gives him the creeps, but on the other hand, his companions are not really better.

Kramer, the oldest of the trio, tries to clear the air and claps Keller on the back.

“You got to keep saying one thing to yourself, Matthew.” Keller gives him a questioning look. “ʻHamunaptra,ʼ my friend, ʻHamunaptra.ʼ”

Unnoticed by the quartet, Elizabeth and Peter walk across the dock.

“I hope he really shows up,” Elizabeth says all of a sudden, doubt about her actions yesterday lacing her voice.

“Oh, he will,” Peter returns, trying to sound as sincere as possible. “He might be a cowboy, but I know his kind, and if there’s one thing about them, then it’s that they keep their word.”

Elizabeth shakes her head. Of course her husband would take the side of a drinking buddy.

“Well, I think he’s rude, filthy and the worst scoundrel I’ve ever met. Not that I’ve had the ʻpleasureʼ of meeting a lot of them.” She turns to fix her husband with a look. “And I definitely don’t like him, not even one bit.”

“Sounds a lot like somebody that I used to know,” a voice suddenly speaks up, causing both Elizabeth and Peter to turn. To their common surprise, they see Neal standing there, and if their big eyes are anything to go by, they are truly surprised to see him.

To be honest, this Neal is truly a sight for sore eyes. After being released, he headed back to the Cairo residence of his long-time friend June Ellington, where he got pampered by her staff. Now he’s shaved (with just a bit of stubble remaining in his face), he’s finally clean again, his long hair replaced with a new, shorter haircut. And just like his shoes, he really feels polished with the new, stark white shirt and khaki trousers June has left for him. He can’t really suppress a smile when he sees the appreciation shining in Elizabeth’s eyes.

“He… hello,” Elizabeth stutters out as soon as Neal’s in hearing distance, and the smile finally spreads on his face.

But before he can say anything to her in return, Peter grabs his hand and shakes it.

“Quite a day for the start of an adventure, Caffrey?”

“Yeah, it is,” Neal answers, while checking his pockets. Even a pickpocket like him can’t be careful enough around others.

Up on the barge, Collins stands at the bow, wiping his glasses. Mozzie joins him, and like his two travel companions, Collins also has one burning question.

“You’re sure Hamunaptra is really out there?”

“Yeah, along with the definitely scorched-by-now remains of my whole garrison, sahib.” Like Keller, Mozzie can’t really stand the young African-American, but as long as they keep paying him the right amount of money, he can swallow his pride and his fears. Looking down, Mozzie nearly does a double take when he, all of a sudden, spots Neal, who still stands in the same spot as before, talking to Elizabeth and Peter.

“If you’ll excuse me, there’re still some things to do before we can start.”

Before Collins even can think of answering, Mozzie is gone, intent on finding out what the heck Neal is doing here.

Back down on the dock, Elizabeth finally recovers from the shock of seeing Neal in his true handsomeness.

“Mister Caffrey, can you guarantee me that this all is not just some kind of a con, a set up? Because if it is, I’m warning you…”

She doesn’t get any farther as Neal is stepping up close to her, clearly invading her personal space, before locking his gaze with hers. To his slight surprise, Elizabeth doesn’t back away.

“What I can guarantee you, Miss, is, that my colonel found it, the box, somewhere in an ancient fortress, and all of us Legionnaires believed in it so much that we were willing to cross the desert all the way from Libya into Egypt to get there.” He pauses, though his gaze remains locked with hers. “I already told you that all I found there was sand and death, the latter brought upon us by Tuareg warriors.” Again, Neal pauses, and finally he breaks the eye contact, if only to bend down and grab their bags. “I’ll take them.”

Before either of the Burkes even has the chance to say anything, Neal is up the plank, heading into the same passenger barge that already is the designated means of transportation for Mozzie and his American companions. Elizabeth follows him with her eyes, and Peter would win every bet that they were a bit wistfully. This guy is getting under her skin, that’s for sure.

“Oh yeah, you’re definitely right,” Peter whispers to her. “He’s really a filthy, rude scoundrel. Can’t say I like him too.”

Finally, Elizabeth pulls herself out of her short reverie, only to hear another voice, one she so doesn’t want to hear.

“A bright morning to you all.”

For the second time this morning, she and Peter turn around, only to be met with the still disgusting face of the warden.

“What the heck are you doing here?” they both exclaim at the same time, which doesn’t perturb the warden in the slightest manner.

“Well, Miss, I’m here to protect my investment,” the warden answers her nonchalantly, a leering look in his eyes (which Elizabeth knows is directed at her and her alone).

While Elizabeth and Peter share a look, the warden also goes up the plank into the barge, and the Burkes can’t do anything else but to join them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	4. Chapter 3 – The Race To Hamunaptra, Part I

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Passenger Barge_

_A few hours later_

Night has fallen upon Egypt, and the barge makes its way down the River Nile. Also on their way are the Mumia, but they still have to catch up with the barge.

At the bow, Keller, Kramer and Collins are playing poker with Peter. They seem to be having a good time when Neal joins them, a heavy bag in his hands.

“Hey, Caffrey, sit down. We could use another good player. Apart from this one here,” Peter points at Keller for emphasis, “these fellow Americans need a lesson in poker.”

“Sorry, Burke, but I have one rule in my life.” Neal looks at the men, a silent request for their attention. “I only gamble with my life, not with my money.”

“Never?” Keller echoes, his eyes passing along a silent challenge at Neal. He takes a long pull from his cigar before continuing. “I bet you five hundred dollars that the three of us,” he motions to Kramer and Collins, who both wear a smug smile similar to his own, “reach Hamunaptra before your entourage.”

Neal only takes a heartbeat to consider the challenge.

“You’re on.”

“And sir?” Collins inquires while slipping on his still somewhat-dirty glasses. “What makes you so sure that you will win?”

“What makes you?” Neal fires back.

“Well, son,” Kramer joins in, “we got us a man who claims to have actually been there.”

For a fraction of a second, Neal’s poker face slips, and from the corner of his eyes he sees that Peter is equally surprised to hear that.

“Well, that’s what I call a coincidence,” Peter says, a small smile on his face – which is short-lived when Neal ʻaccidentallyʼ clubs him with his bag. “So, whose deal is it, by the way? Mine?” He points at himself. “I thought I just dealt?”

Neal, suddenly tired of his current company, gets up again. At a table in the distance he sees Elizabeth sitting, alone and obviously lost in her thoughts. Without saying anything to the guys at the table, he heads over to her – and scares her out of her wits when he drops the bag on the table.

“Sorry, Miss, didn’t mean to scare you.”

“Oh, you didn’t, well at least not with that.” She indicates the bag with a tilt of her head. “What scares me more are you and your behavior.”

“My behavior?” Neal echoes, not even trying to hide the surprise in his voice. He has been called a lot of things in his life, but never before has his manners, his behavior been a topic worth a discussion.

“Yes, your behavior,” Elizabeth returns, speaking slowly as if she wants to explain something to a child. “On the one hand, you can be the perfect gentleman.” Involuntary, both their minds take them back to their dinner only two hours ago, where Neal was truly a gentleman around her. “But on the other hand, you act as if you were raised by wolves and NOT by other human beings.”

Neal’s reaction to the last sentence surprises her – he starts to laugh, and try as she might, she can’t recall seeing anything close to the beauty that is his laughing face in her whole life.

“What’s so funny?” she asks, with as much anger as she’s able to muster.

“You,” Neal returns while trying to get hold of his laughter. “You’re still angry that I dared to kiss you, right?”

“Yeah,” Elizabeth admits. “If you want to call that a kiss,” she adds, but Neal doesn’t know that this is just a blatant lie. If she was honest, Elizabeth truly enjoyed their kiss, but that’s something that she doesn’t want to share with anyone.

Without answering her, Neal starts to unpack the bag. One after the other, he pulls out several revolvers, an elephant gun, knives of various sizes, and last but not least, several carefully wrapped dynamite sticks. Try as she might, but Elizabeth can’t keep her curiosity at bay upon seeing all the items spread out in front of her.

“Did I miss something?” She tries to catch Neal’s eye, and after a few tries, she succeeds. “Do you plan to engage us in a battle en route?”

“No, Miss, but the last time I was there in Hamunaptra, death was my constant companion.” She looks at him, somewhat puzzled. “I told you about the company of French Foreign Legionnaires I was with?” She nods, urging him with her eyes to continue. “Well, let’s just say that everyone, and I mean every single one of these some-200 men is dead now.”

Elizabeth can’t help but gasp, though she’s not sure if it’s just for the severity of the death count or for the cold, collected edge to Neal’s voice. While she’s still trying to wrap her mind around these new facts, Neal finally sits down at the table and begins to clean the guns.

“You know, when I was there, I felt that there’s something else there, but not visible to the eye. It’s beneath the sand, I think, and I don’t think it’s happy about being disturbed,” Neal continues, his voice steady now.

“Yeah, that’s the main reason why I want to go out there. I somehow feel that a certain artifact is out there, a book to be more precise.” Elizabeth looks over to the bow, where Peter and the others are still engaged in their poker game. “My husband thinks more along the lines of treasure.” She turns her look back to Neal. “What do you think is out there, Mr. Caffrey?”

Neal pulls closer, and once again, he locks their gazes, effectively fixing Elizabeth in her seat.

“Evil.” He pauses, swallows. “Pure evil. Did you know that both the Tuareg and the Bedouins believe that Hamunaptra is cursed? One of the Bedouin chieftains my company encountered on the way to the city even called it the ʻdoorway to hellʼ. And I’m more than inclined to agree to that, after everything I’ve seen there.”

“Actually, it’s ʻpassageway to the underworldʼ, but I get your hint.” She smiles at him. “I never was one to believe in fairytales and all that jazz, Mr. Caffrey. What I do believe in, on the other hand, is that one of the most famous books of all time is buried at Hamunaptra. I’m talking about the _Book of the Living_. When I was a kid, reading about it is what sparked my interest about Egypt in the first place. It’s the very reason why Peter and I are here. If I could manage to really find it, it would be the end to a life-long hunt, and a lifetime achievement.”

Neal can’t help but smile at the enthusiasm Elizabeth displays while talking about that book, the way the prospect of possibly finding it in Hamunaptra makes her blue eyes sparkle. He somehow hates the thought that she might pay a bitter price just for the attempt, but he keeps his poker face in place. She doesn’t need to know that at the moment.

“That’s why you want the book?” Elizabeth nods, though it’s obvious that she’s a bit puzzled by his question. “Not for the fact that it’s said to be made of pure gold and so worth quite a fortune?”

“I see you know your history, Mr. Caffrey,” Elizabeth says, surprise about his knowledge evident in her voice.

“No, Mrs. Burke, I know my treasure.”

Elizabeth gets up and leaves the table, only to return a few seconds later, intent on getting one more answer from Neal.

“Just one more thing… why did you kiss me?”

“Honestly?” He looks up and sees her nod. “Well, I was about to be hanged, and somehow, kissing you seemed to be quite a good idea at that time.”

Elizabeth can’t believe what she’s hearing. She gives him a furious look before storming off. Neal can’t do anything except watch her leave, though her sudden disappearance leaves him just a bit perplexed. Which is cut short when he hears someone snickering in close proximity. Sensing that this snickering comes from under the table, he quickly reaches down, grabs the person by the collar and hauls him to his feet. To Neal’s surprise, the person turns out to be Mozzie.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Neal, my friend! What a wonderful surprise!”

Before Mozzie has the chance to say anything more, Neal has trapped the shorter man under his arms, one of the hunting knives to his neck.

“So,” Neal, and though his voice is matter-of-fact, collected, Mozzie feels fear creeping up on him. A calm Neal is always way more dangerous than a furious one, he knows that much. “Should have figured out that you are leading the other Americans.” Mozzie doesn’t even dare to move, but his eyes confirm Neal’s suspicion. “So, sahib, what’s the scam this time? You lead them out to the desert, then leave them hanging right in the middle of nowhere?”

“No,” Mozzie answers, and try as he might, he quite can’t keep his voice from wavering slightly. “These Americans are clever. They only pay me half for the way to Hamunaptra. The second half is mine when I get them safely back to Cairo. So, no matter if I like it or not, I have to go all the way, literally.”

Neal seems to be satisfied with Mozzie’s answer, since he pulls the knife away from Mozzie’s throat and releases the man from the chokehold. Mozzie slowly gets up, his eyes not even daring to leave Neal while he rubs his neck.

“So, Neal, what happened to you? Why are you going back to Hamunaptra? You were one of the few who never really believed in it. Why are you so intent on running back to a place where the devil himself has taken up residence?”

“Could ask you exactly the same, Moz.” From the horse corral, they hear Elizabeth yelp as the only camel aboard keeps biting her, causing both men to grin.

“See that woman over there?” Neal motions to Elizabeth, who still tries to put some distance between her and the camel. “That girl saved my life, figured I could keep her out of trouble in exchange for that.”

“That’s so typical for you, Neal. Always having more balls than brains, not that you would lack in brain, my friend.”

Mozzie has barely finished the sentence when he sees Neal narrowing his eyes at him before grabbing him and hauling him over to the railing behind them.

“You know what, Moz, let’s make us even for Hamunaptra, shall we?”

“Even?” Mozzie echoes, quite puzzled as to what Neal referring, but before he can retrieve the particular memory from his brain, Neal has already chucked him over the side of the barge into the water below. Neal turns back to the table, grabs his weapons, puts them back into the bag and walks down the deck.

“Neal!” Mozzie screams from his place down in the water. “Neal, I love you like a brother, but I’m going to kill you for doing this to me!”

Neal can’t help but smile about his friend, and even more about his choice of words.

“Sounds somewhat familiar.”

But right at that instant, Neal’s mood takes a turn for the worse when he spots three sets of wet footprints right in front of him, leading from the railing to the inside of the barge. His senses are on alert, one of the passengers is in imminent danger. And he has quite an idea as to who.

Inside the barge, Elizabeth prepares for the night in her cabin. She already has changed into a simple white nightgown, and is standing in front of a floor-length mirror at the moment. Taking the pins out of her hair, she shakes her head, causing her long locks to fall loose over her shoulders.

Right in that moment, she notices that she’s not alone in the room when she bumps into one of the three Mumia. But before she can alert anyone to the intruder, he slaps a hand over her mouth while holding up his other hand, his hook ready to strike.

“Where is the map, woman?”

Without her intent, Elizabeth’s eyes goes down and over to the table, where the map is sitting next to a flickering candle.

“And the key? Where do you keep the key?”

This time, Elizabeth just shakes her head, a confused look in her eyes.

“Well, I will find it myself just fine.”

Just as he says so, he raises the hand with the hook, intent on killing her. Right that moment, the door to her cabin is kicked open, and Neal comes in, guns drawn. Surprised at the disturbance, the Mumia grabs Elizabeth and keeps her in place right in front of him, using her as a human shield.

“That a friend of yours?” Neal says matter-of-factly to Elizabeth as he tries to come up with a plan to shoot the intruder without hurting her in the process. But he doesn’t even get that far as right at that moment, another Mumia barges into the room, this time through the window. In a heartbeat, a gun fight breaks loose, ending in Neal killing one of the Mumia. During the fight, a lantern is destroyed, which In turn sets Elizabeth’s room aflame. At last, Neal grabs Elizabeth by the arm and pulls her out of the room, but she’s determined to break free.

“What? Why do you want to go back in there?” Neal inquires when they are well away from the fire.

“The map is still in there!” She looks up at him, and he sees both desperation and determination in her eyes. “How should we find the way to Hamunaptra without it?” Without waiting for his answer, she makes her way back to her cabin, but Neal grabs her again, spinning her around against a wall to face him.

“Relax, woman!” She looks a bit shocked, but Neal’s not going to be deterred by it. “I’m the map!” He taps the side of his head for emphasis, and finally, he sees some kind of recognition in her eyes. “It’s all up here, we don’t need that piece of papyrus to get there.”

“Maybe not, and while it’s a comfort to know you know the way, I prefer some kind of backup.”

Neal has to use every ounce of willpower to not roll his eyes, and he opts for pulling her even further down the deck.

“There’s still one of them around here, so I better get you to safety.”

Back in Elizabeth’s room, the flames are gaining more and more ground. The Mumia with the hook finally spots the key/box on the floor. He bends down to pick it up, when for a second time that night, the door is kicked open, this time by Peter. He doesn’t notice the door hitting the Mumia in the butt and knocking him right into the fire. All he notices are the flames.

“Elizabeth!”

Suddenly, the thought of losing her is all that it takes to sober him up. Peter’s about to head back out when he spots the box, still sitting on the floor. He bends down to pick it up, but a hand beats him to it.

“Hey! That’s mine!”

Right in front of Peter, the Mumia lifts himself up from the floor, his whole backside on fire. He lifts his good hand, holding a gun, but Peter is faster and backs out of the door just as the Mumia fires. He runs down to the bow of the barge, right where the horse pen is. Inside, Neal and Elizabeth hurry down, trying to escape the last of the Mumia, when all of a sudden a part of the wall explodes near her head. Around them, all hell is breaking loose as the other passengers try to save themselves from the spreading fire and the gunshots. Neal engages the Mumia in a gun fight, resulting in more lanterns being shot and spreading the fire. By the time they are finished, more than half of the barge is on fire. In a last attempt to stop the assailant, Neal shoots the pen lock open, and it doesn’t take long for the horses to go nuts, both from the fire and the chaos around them. They form a stampede and to Neal and Elizabeth’s luck, the Mumia can’t escape it and is trampled down.

Seeing that more and more parts of the barge are fire, Neal throws his bag over his shoulder before turning to Elizabeth.

“Miss, can you swim?”

“Of course I can. If the occasion calls for it.”

Before she can even comprehend, Neal picks her up and throws her over the railing into the water below it.

“Oh, believe me, this situation definitely calls for it.”

And with that, he dives in after her. Up on the burning barge, Peter finally runs out onto the bow, where he sees Kramer, Keller and Collins shooting everything in sight. He only shakes his head at them.

“Cowboys.”

All of a sudden, the Mumia with the hook stumbles out behind him, resembling more a human torch than anything else. Seeing Peter, he grabs him and pins him to the wall with a flaming arm to the throat. Peter is scared, even more so when he sees his assailant raising the hand with the hook, ready to strike. But right then, the three Americans turn around and fire in Peter’s direction, resulting in them blowing the Mumia right over the railing.

Sending a thank-you nod to them, Peter smiles and looks down at his hand. He has the key/box back. Right at that moment, the stampede of horses barges down the deck, and all Peter and the other Americans can do is dive – Peter to one side, Kramer, Collins and Keller to the other.

Over on the riverbank, Elizabeth, Neal, Peter and the warden wade out of the water, next to some of the other passengers. Elizabeth’s nightgown is soaked and clings to her body, no matter how hard she tries to wring it out. Neal’s not the only one who chances a look at her, but he likes to think he’s the only guy here that truly likes what he sees. He always had a thing for supple women, and Elizabeth Burke is one fine specimen of them, that’s for sure.

The rest of the passengers, including the three other Americans and last but not least the horses, finally get to the far shore, and of course, Mozzie is also among them.

“Hey, Neal!” Mozzie screams all across the river, and Neal bets the smile in his voice is mirrored on his round face. “Looks like I got all the horses!”

Neal on the other hand doesn’t even try to keep the growing anger from his voice.

“Yeah, but to me, it looks like you’re on the wrong side of the river as well.”

And while Mozzie realizes that and screams at the stars and starts cursing everything, Neal and the rest of the passengers watch the burning barge drifting further down the river before sinking.

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	5. Chapter 4 – The Race To Hamunaptra, Part II

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_Bedouin village_

_The next morning_

Peter watches, in a funny mixture of tiredness and curiosity, as Neal barters with one of the camel traders. In fluent Arabic, mind you. Somehow, Peter knows that Neal – a walking, talking mystery to him – Elizabeth and the strange dreams he has had for some time now are connected in some way, but he still hasn’t figured out the dreams in order to connect all the pieces. As he comes out of his short daydreaming, he sees Neal handing over a wad of money before the trader hands him the reins to four not exactly trustworthy, old-looking, ugly camels. With a scowl on his – admittedly handsome – features, Neal walks over to him, the camels trailing behind him.

“Do I want to know how much these fleabags have cost us?” Peter asks, the indifference in his voice clearly indicating that he’s not really interested in the answer.

“I’ll have you know that we could have gotten them for free.” Peter’s reaction is exactly what Neal has expected – his eyebrows go skyrocketing to his hairline. With a small smile on his face, Neal continues. “All we had to do was give them your wife.”

“Well, as tempting as that might sound at times, I’m not ready to do that, period,” Peter says back, but Neal can hear the underlying traces of humor. Elizabeth Burke is a handful – both men will admit that willingly – but even though he’s only known her for a short time, Neal understands Peter’s sentiment completely.

Neal is about to answer Peter when he spots Elizabeth stepping out of one of the Bedouin tents a short distance away from there. For the first time in a long time (if he’s honest, he would bet it never ever has happen to him before), Neal’s words get stuck in his throat upon laying his eyes on her. She’s dressed in a tight-fitting, traditional Bedouin dress, which compliments her stature, while the gorgeous color does the same to her facial features. A voice in the back of his mind warns him of the danger she emits, but Neal couldn’t care less. She’s definitely, hands down, the most beautiful woman he ever has seen. Swallowing hard, he finally tears his gaze away from her and over to her husband standing next to him.

“Yeah, my friend, I totally see your point.”

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_Some time later_

Four camels are making their way through the relentless frying pan that is the Sahara. On their backs are Elizabeth, Peter, Neal and the warden. While Elizabeth seems to thoroughly enjoy her ride on the camel, both Peter and Neal seem to have their troubles.

“Got to say, I’ve never really liked camels,” Peter says out of the blue. “They smell, they’re filthy, they bite, and last but not least, they spit.” He shudders slightly. “Simply disgusting.”

Neal hears what Peter says, but while the latter refers to their actual means of transportation, Neal realizes that all these facts also fit their travelling companion to a T, as he’s witnessed with his own eyes. The warden eats parts of a chicken while riding the camel, and if that wasn’t disgusting enough, he’s surrounded by flies and last but not least also spits out some gristle. Finally tearing his eyes away from the warden and over to Peter riding next to him, Neal can’t help but agree.

“Yeah, absolutely disgusting.”

Elizabeth, riding at the head of the group, lets out a whoop as her camel accelerates in its trek across the dunes. She turns around, a bright, sunny smile on her face, and both Peter and Neal can’t help but smile back at her.

“Well, I for one like them very much.” She pats the camel across the neck. “I think they’re cute.”

A few hours later, night has again fallen over the desert. Contrary to the other three, Neal stays awake, all his senses alert for eventual threats. Peter and the warden are both fast asleep, and while the warden snores loudly, Peter is silent, though his head bobs to the rhythm of his camel. Elizabeth is also fast asleep, and Neal manages in the last moment to prevent her from slipping out of her saddle without waking her. He takes the opportunity to watch her a bit more closely without getting caught, and once again, he realizes that he truly likes what he sees in front of him. Suddenly, he senses another presence, though not close to them. His eyes dart around them, and finally, they settle on a ridge in the distance, where Dian Bey and her Mumia Riders are keeping an eye on them all.

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Another day dawns, and while the sun still hasn’t crested the horizon, Peter and the warden are wide awake and loudly discussing whether the warden snores or not. Up ahead of them, Neal and Elizabeth are riding side by side, when all of a sudden, Neal feels a certain pull at his soul. They are closing in on Hamunaptra, that’s for sure, since it’s Death that’s pulling on Neal.

“We’re almost here,” Neal suddenly says, his voice soft.

Elizabeth looks up and over to him.

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah, absolutely. Look at the ground.”

Elizabeth does, and try as she might, she can’t quite suppress a shudder. Beneath the feet of their camels, uncounted skeletons are sticking out of the ground, most of them bleached by the sun and only the bones, the meat already eaten away by the predators of the desert.

“What the hell is that?” Peter exclaims as he comes up next to his wife, his eyes glued to the skeletons.

The warden also closes in to the others, and like Peter and Elizabeth, he also can’t keep himself from shuddering.

“These are other seekers of Hamunaptra,” Neal explains, “or what the desert has left of them.”

Suddenly, the other Americans ride out behind the far end of a dune. Unlike our heroes, this group is far larger, as about two dozen native diggers and an Arab Egyptologist are accompanying them. Another difference is that most of them are traveling on horses, except for Mozzie, who is riding a camel. He spots Neal and waves over to them, joy evident in his voice.

“What a wonderful morning, my friend!”

Neal only nods back. A short distance away, both parties come to a stop, only a couple hundred feet between them. Both Neal and Mozzie have a faraway look on their faces, their gazes focused on the far horizon. While Neal’s companions remain silent, Keller phrases his puzzlement.

“Well, what the hell are we waiting for now?”

Without turning around, Mozzie answers him.

“Patience, my friend, is a virtue. And you would do yourself good if you practice it from time to time, sahib.”

Keller only grunts, while Kramer looks over to Neal, a challenge forming in his head.

“Hey, Caffrey! First one to the city gets five hundred. In cash!”

Neal doesn’t say a word, he just keeps staring at the horizon, where finally the sun begins to rise.

“Get ready,” Neal orders his companions, but of course, the other Americans also get ready. Elizabeth feels suspense and anticipation creeping up her spine, and she can’t help but think that they are about to witness a great moment.

“For what?” she inquires.

“We’re about to be shown the way. The way to Hamunaptra.”

All of a sudden, they see a shape rising on the far right, along with the sun. It looks like a volcano, and Mozzie’s Americans take off towards it, eager to get to Hamunaptra. Before following his comrades, Keller turns around to Neal and his group.

“See ya there, Caffrey!”

And he’s off, urging his horse to close the distance to his friends. Peter and Elizabeth only can watch them vanishing in the distance before turning back to Neal, their expressions a mixture of anxiety and sarcasm.

“Hey, Caffrey,” Peter starts, “don’t get me wrong, but shouldn’t we be following their example?”

“Wasn’t that the reason you had us all riding day and night?” Elizabeth continues. “To win that stupid bet?”

Neal doesn’t answer them, just keeps staring, his eyes focused on the horizon. Mozzie watches ʻhisʼ group, shaking his bald head at their eagerness in all the wrong places.

“Fools,” is all he says before spitting on the ground. Both Peter and Elizabeth turn their heads towards him, puzzled expressions on their faces – when all of a sudden, they see the volcano shifting across the horizon, causing the other Americans to crash their horses to a stop, turn them around and race the other way. But once again, the volcano shifts in yet another direction, and the Americans are forced to crash their horses again. From the distance, Neal and his companions can hear them curse, confusion evident in their voices. Elizabeth and Peter share a smile, realizing that their competitors are racing a mirage. Up ahead of them, the volcano shifts for a third time, and this time, the Americans give up, remaining on the far right side of Neal’s group. The volcano shifts to a stop on the far left side of them. Suddenly, both Neal and Mozzie start to smile before swatting their camels and racing away, toward the mirage. Elizabeth, Peter and the warden follow suit, as well as the rest of Mozzie’s group.

Mozzie and Neal are in the lead, their camels head to head. Sensing that he might lose, Mozzie pulls out his camel whip, but instead of unleashing it on his camel, he tries to get Neal off his camel. He fails twice before trying a third time, but now, Neal is prepared, and he grabs the end of the whip and pulls, causing Mozzie to tumble to the ground. Without looking back, Neal races ahead, with Elizabeth closing in on him. Mozzie only can move out of the way when the rest of the riders stampede past him, his face twisted in anger.

Neal and Elizabeth have reached the outskirts of the former city, and Neal can’t help but grin about Elizabeth’s evident joy. Her long hair is flying in the wind, and she’s laughing out loud, making it obvious that she’s definitely having the time of her life. Once more, Neal feels that he likes that woman – a lot.

Suddenly, Neal spots a stone ramp ahead of them, but it seems that Elizabeth, completely caught up in the race, doesn’t see that at all.

“Elizabeth, slow down!” Neal yells, but Elizabeth ignores him and races her camel up the ramp towards a gate.

“Just slow down, Elizabeth! Slow down! There’s a big…” Neal continues, but he doesn’t finish as he sees Elizabeth flying head over heels through the air and right into a big sand dune. For a fraction of a second, his heart skips a beat upon seeing that, but when she emerges from the sand, a bit stunned and with sand pretty much everywhere on her, he can’t help but shake his head and ride up to her, stopping his camel right on the edge of the ramp.

“You were saying something?” She looks up at him, confused and still a bit stunned.

“Ah, never mind,” Neal answers with a shrug, and if she’s hearing right, just the tiniest bit of humor in his voice.

In the meantime, Keller, Kramer, Collins and the rest of the two groups have arrived in the remains of the city as well. The three Americans are stunned, looking around at the ruins in wonder. Neal looks at them, a wide, triumphant smile gracing his features.

“Looks like you boys owe me five hundred dollars.”

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A few hours later, pretty much everyone is busy, to a certain degree. The Egyptologist is commanding the diggers, who diligently haul rock and sand away from the doorway to the Temple. A short distance away, Keller, Kramer and Collins are playing poker, once again, while Mozzie sits to the side, smoking a hookah.

Elizabeth and Peter are also sitting to the side, and they watch as uncounted camels roam the ruins, backpacks and saddlebags still tied to their backs.

“Caffrey?” Neal, sitting a few feet ahead of them, turns around, facing Elizabeth. “Where do they all come from?” She motions to a small group of camels passing them.

“They?” he also motions to them, as if to confirm they are talking about the same. Elizabeth nods, curiosity written all over her face. “They belong to the dead.” He pauses, and he can see both compassion and remembrance taking up residence on her features. “They will wait for years to come for their riders to return.” Both his face and his voice have turned serious.

“And then?” Peter inquires, his voice suggesting that he might or might not like the answer to his question.

“Then,” Neal turns around to face them both, “then they will leave. And if the saddlebags are lost en route, nobody will ever know of their owners.”

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Another jump in time, and this time, Neal, the Burkes and the warden are busy digging around a crevice that runs through most of the ruins. Neal has a long rope in his hands and wraps one end around a pillar before throwing the rest down the wall of the crevice. He is about to rappel down, ready to explore it. Peter, standing a few feet to his right side, is about to bend down and have a look down the crevice, when all of a sudden he is hit in his butt by something, causing him to yelp. Annoyed, he turns around, only to come face to face with the decrepit face of Anubis.

“Aw, come on.” Neal looks up at him. “Was that necessary?” Peter asks the statue before noticing Neal’s eyes on him. He spins around, seeing curiosity sparkling in their companion’s eyes. “What?” Neal just shrugs, daring him to answer. “This thing,” Peter points to the statue behind him, “gives me the creeps.”

“You’d better be nice to him,” Neal fires back, and now it’s Peter’s turn to give him a quizzical look. “That thing, as you call it, has saved my life.”

“Oh.” For a few seconds, both men are silent, just watching Elizabeth positioning some ancient-looking mirrors along the crevice. “Well, he has to do a bit more than that to convince me,” Peter finally says.

“Okay.” Neal shrugs, his head already a few steps ahead in their plan. In the meantime, Elizabeth has finished her task with the mirrors and takes up their conversation.

“Well, hon, that ʻthingʼ gets me really excited,” she says while siding up to Peter.

“Really?” Neal, who has already begun with his descent down the crevice, inquires and shakes his head. “The things you get excited about,” he mutters loudly, sarcasm and wonder about this woman evident in his voice.

“Yeah, it does,” Elizabeth says, “and according to the Bembridge Scholars, the statue of Anubis is not just a statue. It also contains a secret compartment that might or might not be the holding place for the Book of the Living.”

Sensing that he might not win that argument, Neal changes the topic to the various mirrors.

“And what are those mirrors for, by the way?”

“Oh, these?” Elizabeth inquires, motioning to one of them close to her. Neal nods, urging her to explain. “Ancient Egyptian trick. Just wait a bit, and you will see what I mean.”

Neal just shrugs, he couldn’t care less about it right now. Instead, he rappels down the crevice, which actually is the former Embalmer’s Chamber. He lights a torch and waves it around, while Elizabeth, Peter and the warden rappel down as well. Stepping away from the rope, Elizabeth looks around the room, mesmerized by it, though it’s too dark to see any details. She turns around to the men.

“Do any of you realize that we are standing in a room that hasn’t been entered by a human being for the last four thousand years or so?”

“I don’t care,” the warden speaks up, “if the last person was here four thousand years ago or just a few weeks ago.” He motions to the darkness surrounding them. “I don’t see a treasure.”

“You can have a share in my cobwebs collection,” Neal says, again in a voice full of sarcasm.

Peter, on the other hand, pulls out a handkerchief and ties it over his nose and mouth, protecting his sensitive olfactory nerves from the foul smell permeating the air in the chamber.

“God!” he exclaims. “Does anyone else notices that it stinks to high heaven in here?” But even while he asks the question, he sniffs the air again, and all of a sudden he realizes that it’s not the room that’s causing the smell, but the warden. Giving him a nasty look, Peter puts more than just a few feet distance between them.

In the meantime, Elizabeth discovers a metal disk on a pedestal on one of the walls. She brushes the cobwebs away from the surface before repositioning it on the pedestal. That way, the disk catches a ray of light that the mirrors deflect into the chamber. From this disk, the ray of light shoots out to other, similar disks positioned all around the room, lighting it up. Elizabeth smiles, proud of her work, and Neal can’t help but smile along her.

“Gotta say, quite a neat trick you got there.” She turns around, the smile even going wider. “And you say that they knew that back in the old days?” El nods before looking around the room.

“Oh Holy Hannah, it’s a preparation room!” she exclaims, wonder lacing her voice.

“Preparation for what?” Neal inquires. He might know a thing or two about Ancient Egyptian rituals, but compared to hers, his knowledge is somewhat limited.

“For entering the afterlife,” Elizabeth explains, causing Neal to draw his gun, which in turn causes Peter to gently grab his arm.

“What my wife means to say is that this is the place where they made the mummies, Neal.”

Peter holds Neal’s gaze until he sees comprehension dawning on the younger man’s face. Ahead of them, Elizabeth leaves the room and heads down a narrow passageway, causing the other to follow her. As it turns out, they have ended up in a narrow labyrinth, which is covered over and over in cobwebs. They follow the passage, but the farther they go, the more they have to crouch. All of a sudden, a strange sound can be heard. It’s almost as if someone is clawing at the walls, but as soon as it has appeared, the sound is gone again, and the group continues its way through the labyrinth. At the end, they almost have to crawl on their hands and knees, but then, the labyrinth gives way to another room – the Chamber of Anubis.

As they straighten up, they realize that they are standing at the feet of the same Anubis statue they had encountered earlier. But before they can explore it in any way, the same sound can be heard again, and this time, it’s closing in on them. Neal cocks his gun while pulling Elizabeth behind him, and for the first time since joining forces with him, they all get a glimpse of the soldier in Neal. Whatever it is that causes that horrible sound, he’s ready for it.

The sound comes closer and closer, and all of a sudden, three faces lunge at Neal from the darkness. He points his gun at them – only to realize that it’s the other Americans. Just like him, they are armed.

“Sweet Jesus!” Kramer exclaims while wiping his sweaty face with a handkerchief. “You scared the hell out of us, Caffrey!”

“Likewise,” Neal says in return, the fact that they all are still aiming at each other not bothering him at all.

“Well, my friend,” Collins says out of the blue, a smug grin on his face, “this statue is ours.” He motions back at Anubis, as if there was ever a doubt they were talking about any other statue.

“Well, sahib,” Neal replies before letting his gaze sweep over what is visible of the statue, “I don’t see a nametag for any of you on it.”

Before any of the other Americans can say anything more, they all are joined by Mozzie, some of the diggers and the Egyptologist, and what a surprise – they all are armed as well, aiming their guns at Neal.

“Ten to one, Neal,” Mozzie speaks up, shaking his head. “Your odds are not exactly the best, I might say.”

“Well,” Neal shrugs, as if they were talking just about a game of poker, “I’ve had worse, you know.”

“Yeah, me too,” Peter pipes up from his side, and just now Neal realizes that he’s clutching a tiny derringer, which almost looks comical in his large hands.

Almost everyone cocks their guns, causing the tension in the room to thicken. But before anything worse can happen, Elizabeth steps slightly around Neal and pulls his arm holding the gun down towards the ground.

“Seriously?” She looks up at all the men around her, shaking her head slightly. “We all are in this together, so I suggest we play nicely and start to share.”

With that, she pulls Neal away, causing Peter and the warden to follow her. The other group slowly lowers their guns and the Americans even start to laugh, while their Egyptologist instantly starts to read and decipher the hieroglyphs on the wall closest to him.

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	6. Chapter 5 – Locks, Keys, Scarabs And Riders – Oh My!

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_Hamunaptra_

_Imhotep’s Chamber_

After clearing the air with the other party, Elizabeth, Neal and Peter are busy working on finding the secret compartment in the statue. While Elizabeth only uses a tiny chisel to carefully chip the rocks away, Neal and Peter work nearby, using sledgehammers against the ceiling.

“If my calculations are correct,” Elizabeth suddenly says, “we should be exactly beneath the statue.” She pauses in chipping and starts laughing, a light blush creeping up her neck. “Oh my!”

“What’s up?” both Neal and Peter ask at the same time, causing the laughter Elizabeth was trying to contain to finally spill from her lips.

“We’ll come up right between his legs.” She barely can finish before another round of laughter gets the better of her, and this time, Neal and Peter add their own chuckles to the mix.

“And you know what?” Peter tears his gaze from his still-laughing wife to their companion. “When those other Americans are fast asleep… we’ll sneak up on them and snatch the book right out from under them.”

Neal, still wearing a bright smile, turns back to Elizabeth, who has finally managed to calm down.

“You sure you can find that secret compartment you were talking about earlier?”

She nods. “Definitely. That is, if their Egyptologist hasn’t found it already.”

Suddenly, Peter notices something, or better someone, missing from their digging party.

“By the way, has anyone seen where our smelly friend has taken off to?”

Both Neal and Elizabeth look around, but they can’t find the warden either. Mostly because the man has wandered off to another chamber, where he finds a beautiful, yet frightening mural after lighting a torch. Embedded in this mural are several scarabs, apparently made from black amethysts, glittering away in the flickering light of the torch. Mesmerized by the beauty of the scarabs, the warden pulls out his knife, intent on prying at least one of these beetles from the wall. If only he knew…

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Back in Anubis’ Chamber, the American group around Keller is watching as the native diggers and the Egyptologist are busy working on the statue. Apparently, they’ve succeeded in finding the secret compartment, if the smile on the Egyptologist’s face is anything to go by. Keller, Kramer, Mozzie and Collins come closer, right on time to see the scholar brushing some sand away, revealing the seam of the compartment.

Kramer, a scholar himself, is eager to reveal its secret. He steps forward and grabs the seam – only to be stopped by the Egyptologist.

“I’ll have you know that Pharaoh Seti was not a fool,” he says, his voice leaving no room for protest.

“Well, if you say so,” Kramer responds while looking back at the diggers over his shoulder, “we’ll let them do it.”

The Egyptologist agrees with Kramer, then turns back to the diggers as well. He yells a command at them, but all of sudden, they are frozen in place, fear written all over their faces. Something is causing that fear, but none of the others cares about it. Keller, still the one with the shortest patience of the whole group, pulls his gun and aims it at three of the diggers. And even though their fear reaches new heights, these three men step forward, hesitantly, and begin to pry the compartment open with some crowbars.

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In Imhotep’s Chamber, our heroes are still digging into the ceiling, making slow progress. While doing so, Neal, ever the curious one, is intent on expanding his knowledge about Ancient Egypt.

“So let me get this straight: they grab a red hot poker, a sharp one, and stick it up your nose?” His eyes are wide, he can’t believe what he’s been told. “Then they cut your brain into tiny pieces and rip them out through your nostrils?” He can’t help but shudder. Sure, Neal has experienced a lot in his young life, but this is far more than he can comprehend at the moment.

Next to him, Peter apparently feels the same, if the sharp intake of breath is anything to go by.

“Ouch! I feel for these people – something like that must really hurt,” he says, and just like Neal, he adds a slight shudder to his words.

Elizabeth has to fight not to roll her eyes at them. And they call women the weaker sex…

“That’s why it’s called mummification.” She’s met with twin expressions of confusion. “Meaning you’re already dead when they do that.”

“Still,” Peter begins, racking his brain to come up with words.

“Wonder if any procedure like that might bring you back to life,” Neal continues, and Elizabeth is sure that she detected a glint in his blue eyes, even in the dim light of their torches.

“You know what?” She huffs a breath. “The two of you are worse than a dozen immature college boys.”

“Aww, come on, hon…” Peter begins, but before he can fully launch into an apology, a big part of the ceiling suddenly gives way. Neal, standing closer to Elizabeth, grabs her and pushes them both over to another part of the wall, while Peter makes a dive for the far wall of the room. When the dust settles, they realize that next to a heap of rocks and sand a massive stone casement has dropped down from the ceiling.

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Back in Anubis’ Chamber, the other American party hears the noises, but while Mozzie, Keller, Kramer and Collins pull out their guns and point them at the ground, the others don’t stop in what they’re doing. The diggers, still with fear evident on their faces, pull at the compartment, and after three tries, they finally succeed in opening it. But all that comes out is a spray of liquid, hitting the natives square in their faces. In a matter of seconds, the liquid virtually melts their faces off, leaving only their skeletal heads. Horrible screams fill the chamber, before the men drop to the ground, the liquid still eating away at their bodies.

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In the meantime, Elizabeth, Peter and Neal have recovered from the shock and are ready to investigate the casement.

“Oh my God!” Elizabeth exclaims while making her way around the casement. “If I’m not mistaken, this looks a lot like a sarcophagus.”

“Call me dumb, but why on Earth would they bury someone in the ceiling? In a casket made of stone, nonetheless?” Neal asks, and he can’t help but think that the people of Ancient Egypt were quite a strange bunch.

“I don’t think that they buried him in the ceiling,” Elizabeth answers, looking up at Neal. “What seems more logical to me is that they buried him at the foot of Anubis.” She looks up at the hole in the ceiling. “Which means that whoever is in there was either of great importance to the Pharaoh or…” she traces the hieroglyphs, “…he has done something really naughty.”

“So, you’re saying that being buried in that place was either punishment or a reward?” Neal asks again, this time with a mix of confusion and wonder lacing his voice.

“Yeah, exactly.” And with that, Elizabeth focuses on the hieroglyphs again.

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At the same time, the warden has succeeded in prying one of the scarabs out of the wall, letting it drop into his pouch. His greed is evident as he starts working on another, and once again, he manages to pry it free. But when he attempts to drop it in his pouch as well, he misses, and the scarab drops to the sandy floor. He doesn’t notice it, and he also fails to notice that something strange is going on with that one. As if the amethyst was just a cover for some kind of a cocoon, the stone begins to glow as soon as it hits the ground, and inside, something mysterious begins to wiggle. While the warden still tries to pry another beetle from the wall, the stone splits open like the shells of an egg, giving way to a much alive scarab – the same that Imhotep had to eat at the beginning. It sneaks up at the warden, slips into his shoe and from there, it makes its way up his body. Soon, his screams fill the chamber, but he can’t stop it from finally taking up residence in his brain.

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In Imhotep’s Chamber, Neal, Peter and Elizabeth are still huddled around the sarcophagus. They clear the dust off the surface, revealing a single, ominous-looking hieroglyph at the head of the casement. Elizabeth tries to decipher it, but it’s quite a difficult task when your husband is standing nearby, drumming impatiently on the lid of the sarcophagus with his fingers.

“Well?” Peter asks, and if the drumming wasn’t a clue to his impatience, the tinge in his voice is a dead giveaway. “Who is it?”

Elizabeth doesn’t even try to hide her frustration about Peter’s impatience. “I could tell you that, if you just would stop drumming next to me!” she all but hisses at him, but right that moment, she finally deciphers the sign, and in a heartbeat, the frustration is replaced by a mix of confusion and concern. Both men notice this and come closer to her, ready to get her to safety, should the need arise.

“Hon?” Peter asks, just as Neal inquires, “Elizabeth?”

She takes a gulp of air before answering them.

“According to this symbol here, the ʻinhabitantʼ of this sarcophagus is ʻHe that shall not be namedʼ.” Even as she says it, she can’t help but be puzzled by this new information.

That’s when Neal spots something a bit further down the lid. Brushing the dust away, he reveals a strange-looking lock – which has the same shape as the box.

“Hey, Elizabeth, take a look at this.” Neal points at the lock. “That looks a lot like a lock to me.”

Peter and Elizabeth come closer and inspect the lock.

“Didn’t you say that these things were made of granite with kind of a steel lining on the inside?” Neal inquires, and if the slightly pained look on Elizabeth’s face is anything to go by, he mixed up some facts, again.

“Yeah, though it was quarried granite with a cobalt lining,” she replies, causing Neal to shrug.

“Well, I guess whoever they put in there, they wanted to make sure that he couldn’t get out again,” Peter says, bringing them both back to the topic at hand.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Neal notices. “I mean, without a key, we’ll be here for quite some time, probably a month, to even crack that thing.”

In the meantime, Elizabeth’s brain is working overtime, trying to put all the pieces of the puzzle together they have encountered so far – and all of a sudden, inspiration hits her, causing her to run over to their bags. Neal and Peter only can watch her in confusion.

“That was what he was talking about!” she exclaims while digging around in Peter’s bag, and when she finds what she was looking for, she hurries back to the lock.

“Hon, who was talking about what? And where?” Peter asks, his voice slow, as if he was talking to a child instead of his wife.

“On the barge. The man with the hook, he was talking about a key all the time.”

Finally, Peter and Neal see that she’s holding the box and that she’s about to transform it into the key. Worried that he might lose his ʻtreasure,ʼ Peter tries to take it back from her, but Elizabeth just slaps at his hands, giving him a daring look. Always knowing when to fold, especially when in a conflict with his wife, Peter backs down.

In a matter of seconds, Elizabeth has unfolded the box, and now, they all can see that it has exactly the same shape as the lock. With a smile on her face, Elizabeth is about to put the box into the lock, when all of a sudden, the screams of the warden echoes through the labyrinth behind them.

They all run up to him, watching in astonishment as he dances around like a dervish. He begins to tear out his hair; - Peter and Neal try to stop him – but the madness growing inside him has also multiplied his strength, and so they both end up on the floor. Finally, the scarab-induced madness causes the warden to run into the far wall at full speed, causing his head to slam into it. He drops down to the floor, dead. Elizabeth, Peter and Neal only can look on, their breathing growing faster, and all of them with wide eyes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Hamunaptra_

_Base Camp_

Another night has fallen on the adventurers, but ever since witnessing the death of the warden, the mood among our heroes is a somber one. Next to a campfire, Peter and Elizabeth are sitting, with El cuddled up to her husband. They both just stare at the flickering flames, when suddenly, Elizabeth speaks up.

“What do you think killed him, hon?”

Peter heaves a sigh. His wife might be the more adventurous of them two, as well as the more educated one, but situations like this, witnessing someone to die, leave her reeling and stunned.

“To be honest, hon, I’ve no idea. But did you ever see him eat anything?”

Before she can come up with an answer, Neal joins them, coming over a jumble of rocks.

“Well, we weren’t the only ones who had a run-in with bad luck today.” Both Burkes look up at him. “According to Kramer, they also had a little misadventure. Three of their diggers were killed.”

“How?” Elizabeth inquires.

“Collins thinks it was some kind of salt acid, coming from the seam of the compartment.” He sits down opposite of them, his whole body language that of a tired man. “Apparently, this Seti guy had a thing for leaving booby-traps all around the place.”

For some seconds, they all are silent, trying to process everything that had happened today. Peter is the first to break the silence.

“Don’t get me wrong, but maybe the old legends about this place being cursed are true for a change.”

As if on cue, a gust of wind blows through their camp, causing the flames of the campfire to dance wildly. Neal and Peter share a nervous look, which in turn causes Elizabeth to laugh.

“Oh my, the two of you!” she gets out between her laughter, “you are worse than…” She doesn’t finish, mainly cause another round of laughter bubbles out of her.

Neal and Peter shake their heads slightly at her, but try as they might, they can’t help but smile about her antics.

“We are worse than who?” Neal inquires, the smile still planted in his face. Elizabeth just looks up at him, still shaking from laughing, and once again, the slightly more rational part of his brain can’t help but marvel at her beauty. Sensing that he won’t get an answer for his first question, Neal changes the topic back to Peter’s initial comment.

“So, I take it you don’t believe in curses, huh?”

That finally causes Elizabeth to calm down, and after taking some deep breaths, she’s able to answer him.

“No, not at all. You know, if I can touch it, if I can see it, it’s real to me. And that’s what I believe in.”

Content with her answer, Neal turns his attention to his weapons lying around him. He cocks his rifle, then looks up at Elizabeth, a big smile on his face and a glint in his eyes.

“Well, Miss, I believe in being prepared.”

He winks at her, and gets rewarded with yet another chuckle. In the meantime, Peter has pulled the pouch of the warden closer and starts to dig around in it. All of a sudden, he screams, which causes both Neal and Elizabeth to jump, with Neal drawing his gun.

“What?” they both inquire. “What is it?”

To their big surprise (or frustration), Peter just pulls a liquor bottle out of the pouch, a big smile gracing his features.

“Moonshine!”

He places the bottle next to his feet, then grabs the pouch, turns it over and shakes it, but nothing comes out.

“Well, gotta say, he might not have been quite the poster boy for hygiene, but nonetheless, he had good taste.”

Peter takes a swig, and for a few seconds, they all are in a good mood. But all of a sudden, Neal drops down to the ground, pressing his ear to the sand. Peter and Elizabeth watch him, confused. Only a heartbeat later, you can hear the sounds of gunfire coming from the camp of the other Americans, faint at first. Jumping up, Neal readies himself for joining the battle, but not before throwing his elephant gun at Elizabeth with a command.

“Stay here!” he urges, with both his voice and his eyes, and Elizabeth just nods. Neal takes off towards the other camp, breaking into a run as he passes the ruins. But instead of doing as she’s told, Elizabeth follows him. Not really interested in staying behind, Peter also grabs a gun from Neal’s stash, as well as the bottle of moonshine, which he holds closely to his body, and finally dashes after the other two.

Back at the American camp, the battle is in full swing. At least two dozen Mumia riders have laid siege on the camp, racing their horses back and forth through the site while firing their rifles. Several of the remaining native diggers are killed, just as they try to run for shelter. Leaping out of their tents, Keller, Kramer and Collins join the fight, their guns blazing. They manage to kill some of the riders before Keller is shot. He drops to the ground in a spin, yet he manages to keep shooting his gun. Kramer and Collins run over to him, aiding him.

Neal finally makes it to the camp, but just as he turns the last corner of a ruin, he slams into Mozzie, who, once again, is trying to hightail it out of Dodge.

“Why, Mozzie, are we going somewhere?”

“Oh, Neal! I was just trying to look for you!” Neal has to suppress the urge to roll his eyes at the blatant lie. “You know, this could be my final hours on this Earth, and in that case, I wanted to be with my friend.”

Without an answer, Neal grabs Mozzie by the collar, dragging him back to the camp – and the battle.

“Well then, c’mon, my friend.”

Realizing what Neal is about to do with him, Mozzie starts to struggle, but in the end, he’s no match to the other man’s strength.

“Just tell me: why on Earth do you like to fight so much?”

Neal has to smile upon hearing the tinge of desperation lacing the shorter man’s voice. He stops, spins Mozzie around and locks his gaze with him.

“Cause I look good doin’ it, that’s why.”

And with that, he’s off to join the battle.

Ahead of them, Dian Bey gallops through the camp. With both her scimitars drawn, she manages to kill some more of the diggers. Seeing that, Neal runs up on top of some rocks. When she comes closer, he leaps out and tackles Dian off the horse. They both slam into the ground, knocking the air out of them. Neal is the first to recover, aims his gun while spinning up on one knee, and finally shoots the scimitar out of Dian’s hand, catching her by surprise. He’s ready to take another shot when another Mumia rider comes up between them, trying to take Neal’s head off with his scimitar. He misses, but Neal spins around and shoots the man off the horse, which takes off at full speed. When he turns around, Dian Bey is gone from the scene.

Someplace near, Elizabeth hides behind some rocks, watching the battle raging on below her. Suddenly, she hears sounds behind her and spins around. To her horror, a man with the same strange blue tattoos on his face as the man on the barge rides up to her, his scimitar ready to strike. With a scream, she fires the gun, blowing the rider off his mount and some twenty feet back into some ruins. Unfortunately, the kick of the gun blows Elizabeth off her feet as well, and for the second time since arriving here, she finds herself landing in a sand dune.

Near the temple door, Peter and some of the remaining diggers have taken cover. Their hope at not being discovered is short-lived as soon as Peter discovers some of the Mumia are charging at them. Taking a swig from the liquor, Peter gathers all his courage and turns to the diggers around him.

“Let ‘em have it, boys!”

They all leap out from their hiding place, immediately opening fire at the riders. Several seconds later, the dust settles again, and to their joy, all the riders are either lying dead on the ground or gone. Seeing the outcome, Peter can’t help but smile when he turns back to the diggers.

“Now that’s what I call a damn good show!”

Right that moment, several more Mumia leap off the temple and land right behind Peter and the diggers. With a groan, Peter and the others turn around, and pretty soon, the whole bunch is engaged in some serious hand-to-hand combat.

Back to Neal, who’s loading his gun, putting the cartridges into the chambers in a quick manner. Suddenly, the ground beneath him shakes, just as a thundering sound can be heard. Neal spins around, just in time to see Dian Bey charging at him, swinging her scimitar. Neal instinctively raises his hands, and fortunately, he’s quick enough to have the scimitar only striking his gun instead of his, admittedly handsome, face. The impact of the strike causes his gun to flip away from him, leaving him apparently disarmed. But all of a sudden, he dives to the side, does a roll and comes back up with a stick of dynamite in his hands. Rolling around on his back, Neal holds the fuse to a nearby fire, igniting it. Spinning his head back, he comes face to face with Dian Bey. And though she’s smaller than him, there’s something frightening to her. They lock gazes, while the fuse continues to burn down. At long last, Dian points her scimitar at Neal’s head.

“You and your friends better leave this place, or prepare to die!”

Before Neal even can think about doing anything in return, she swings back up at her horse and gallops off. The other remaining riders take off after her, vanishing into the desert and into the night one by one. Neal watches them leaving for some moments, before he turns to the fuse still burning down, and just before the flames reach the dynamite, he blows it out. Flopping down back on the ground, he takes a moment to catch his breath.

That’s when he spots Elizabeth staggering towards him from the corner of his eye. Concern gets the better of him, and in a matter of seconds, he’s at her side, guiding her over to the fire, sits down with her and holds her close.

“Hey,” his hands come up to her face, brushing some strands of hair out of it, “you all right?”

Though she’s still pretty shaken after all that has happened, Elizabeth suddenly feels safe. The rational part of her brain tries to tell her that it’s just her imagination, but the rest of her is sure that it’s because of Neal. Finally, she looks up at him, and for the first time ever, she sees genuine concern in his eyes – something she truly likes, just like the fact that he’s holding her maybe a bit too close.

The spell of the moment is broken when all around them the remaining members of the second American party come back to life. Mozzie crawls out from his hiding spot under some pillars; Kramer and Collins try to get Keller back on his feet nearby. Hobbling over to where Neal and Elizabeth are still sitting by the fire, everyone can see that Keller is pissed.

“See!” The others are not quite sure who he’s talking to. “That proves my theory.” He finally flops down on a rock, pain marring his features.

“Which is?” Neal inquires.

“That Old Seti’s fortune must be here somewhere. Probably somewhere beneath all this sand.”

Kramer sits down next to him, holding a first-aid kit.

“You know, for them to be protecting this place so fiercely, it’s just proof enough that there’s got to something very valuable down there.”

Neal, though he’s inclined to agree with them, feels that there’s more to these riders than meets the eye. He looks around at the surrounding desert, then turns around to face Kramer and Keller.

“Nah, these riders are people of the desert.” Keller and Kramer look up at him, as well as Elizabeth, all of them wearing expressions of surprise. “The only thing they really value is water, not gold.”

Suddenly, Elizabeth sits up, twisting her head back and forth. Apparently, she’s looking for something. Or someone. She turns back to Neal, fear and worry evident in her eyes.

“Neal, where’s Peter? Where’s my husband?”

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	7. Chapter 6 – No Rest For The Mummies, Part I

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Hamunaptra_

_Base Camp_

To Elizabeth and Neal’s relief, Peter shows up only a few minutes after Elizabeth voiced her concern. As he explains, he had hidden behind some pillars, together with some of the remaining diggers.

Sometime later, both parties are nursing their wounds, though with quite some different approaches. While Kramer and Collins have patched up Keller and have retired into their tents, their diggers are spending the night outside, all of them wide awake. They are way too afraid to even think about sleeping right now, especially in a place like Hamunaptra.

Our heroes on the other hand are busy emptying the bottle of moonshine. Peter seems to be the one most intoxicated, if his behavior and expressions while doing an almost nosedive into the sand is anything to go by, but both Elizabeth and Neal aren’t far behind him. Her husband’s antics cause Elizabeth to giggle like a schoolgirl, with Neal joining in at some point. In a valiant effort to show that there’s a proper gentleman hidden inside of him somewhere, Neal offers the last bit of moonshine remaining in the bottle to Elizabeth, but all he gets is another round of laughter.

“Sir,” she slurs while giving the bottle a weak shove, “un… unlike my husband,” El points over to where Peter is still lying face down in the sand, “I know when to say stop.”

“You mean when to say no, right?” Neal asks, but before she can even decipher his request, he has polished off the bottle and chucks it away into the desert night surrounding them. For a few seconds, Neal stares into the desert, but he’s way too drunk to form any clear thought. So he finally turns back to Elizabeth.

“You know, El, unlike your husband,” he pauses, trying to get a hold of his intestines, which seem to liquefy themselves right now, “I don’t get you.” Elizabeth looks at him, but instead of wearing a questioning expression she only manages a rather comical one, with her big blue eyes going even wider. Neal, keeping both his liquor and laughter down, continues. “You are a whole new breed, at least to me.”

“Aww, you’re afraid?” El returns with a chuckle, but even that is slurred by her inebriation. She shakes her head, as if that would help her sober up instantly.

“Never said that, Miss,” Neal counters, though there’s no real heat behind his words.

“I know,” El says while getting up and stumbling over to Neal, plopping down at his side. If she notices the look of astonishment on his face, she doesn’t let it on. “You’re probably wondering, and I guess that started all the way back in Cairo: what’s a place like me doing in a girl like this?”

Neal shakes his head upon hearing her mix-up, but somehow, this makes her even more adorable to him.

“Yeah, something like that.”

Try as he might, Neal can’t get himself to correct her, not when they both are that drunk. And definitely not when her beautiful blue eyes, blown up to the size of saucers, are looking at him that way. As if he’s the solution to everything.

“You know, Egypt is somewhat in my blood. My father, Alan Mitchell, was a famous explorer. He was all over the world, but Egypt was kind of a second home to him. He loved it so much that he even got married to an Egyptian woman – my mother! And what made her so special to him was the fact that she was not only a beautiful woman, but also quite an adventurer herself.”

When she finishes, El looks Neal straight in the eye, or as much as she’s able to in her drunken state, and the only thing he sees in her eyes is fire – the flames of passion for what she does.

“Okay, let’s say I get the rest of your family, even Peter.” He pauses, trying to find the right words, which is quite a task considering his own drunkenness. “But what on God’s green Earth are you doing here?”

One sentence, but it’s enough to get Elizabeth to her feet, though she’s staggering and swaying back and forth before she can stabilize herself. Once she has regained her footing, she turns back to Neal, the fire in her eyes now directed at him for this insult.

“You know what, Mister?” Neal shrugs. “I may not be an explorer, or a treasure hunter like my husband, or a gunfighter and adventurer like you, Mr. Caffrey, but unlike the two of you, I am proud of what I am.”

Neal already has an inclination of what her answer will be, but he can’t help but ask anyway.

“So? And what is that?” For emphasis, he arches an eyebrow at her.

Elizabeth plops back down next to him, a goofy, drunken smile on her face. With her head held high, she finally answers him. “I am a librarian!” Before leaning in close to Neal’s face and locking their gazes. “And I’m going to kiss you, Mr. Caffrey. Right now!”

Neal’s brain is doing overtime, his heart is almost about to jump out of his chest. Some treacherous parts of him want that kiss, but some parts of him are screaming at him to stop her at any cost. What if Peter decides to join them right that moment? What if the Mumia decide to ride a second attack on them? What if…? Thousands of questions are racing through his brain, but somehow, Neal can’t decide what to do. Finally, he comes up with some kind of plan – stalling her.

“No, Elizabeth, you’re not.”

“Oh, I’m not?” She looks up at him, and above all, she’s even pouting now, jutting her lower lip out.

“No…” Neal pauses, and for a second or two, the battle of the two sides inside of him is raging on. With a last look to where Peter lies (he’s apparently asleep, if the light snores coming from his direction are anything to go by), Neal turns his gaze back to Elizabeth. “No, unless you’re starting to call me Neal.”

“Why?” El gives him a puzzled look, her brain slow on the intake due her drunkenness. “Why shou… should I do that?”

Neal can’t help but grin, she’s definitely one of a kind, even when she’s half in the bag.

“Because that’s my name.”

“Oooh,” she says, as if he has just told her the secret to the whole universe and not just a fact she already knows. Before her brain can catch up, though, Neal leans forward, only slightly touching her lips with his, giving her the chance to back off. El manages to reciprocate the kiss, only for some seconds, before she smiles at him and finally slumps in his arms. Sleep has finally claimed her, and with a smile on his face, Neal follows her into Morpheus’ arms.

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_Imhotep’s Chamber_

_The next day_

Elizabeth is standing next to the sarcophagus, the key in her hand. She slips it into the lock, and turns. Almost immediately, a series of mechanical, strange sounds can be heard. But while they might sound really strange to anyone else, they are just way too loud for our hungover heroes, causing them all to groan.

At long last, the sarcophagus unlocks with a loud hiss. They all begin to push the lid off the sarcophagus, but it’s quite a task to even move it an inch or two, and even bigger when you’re hungover from being drunk.

Elizabeth takes a step back, wiping the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand.

“Oh God, how could I be so stupid?” she groans, causing both men to look at her. “To allow the two of you to get me drunk!”

“Hon, don’t blame me,” Peter says, still trying to move the lid. “I can’t even remember last night or being there with you two.”

“Well, hon,” the way she says it causes Neal to raise his eyebrows, “thanks to you,” she taps Peter in the chest, “neither do I!”

“You don’t?” Neal asks, a hurt look on his face, directed at Elizabeth.

“No, I don’t.” Suddenly, she gets the hidden meaning in his question, and her expression changes to one of nervousness. “Why?” Neal still doesn’t say a thing. “Should I?” El pleads with Neal to finally say something, but apparently, he has decided to let her stew a bit. When he finally answers, it’s with an audible groan, which has nothing to do with the effort of pulling the lid off the sarcophagus.

“Geez, woman, you told me it was the best time you ever had.”

Neal finally grants her relief with a big smile, which borders on cheesy, but Elizabeth is embarrassed nonetheless. Peter on the other hand feels a stab of pain. Despite his own drunken state last night, he had the same dream once again. And this time, the details were way clearer than ever before.

Looking at Neal and Elizabeth, the puzzle pieces, as he has labeled the fragments of his dreams, fall in place in his head. Now he knows where he has seen Neal’s face, even before he met him in the Casbah. Apparently, their former lives have met before, most likely at some point in the antiquity, and the other two had some kind of a love affair.

But before he can even react to Neal’s innuendo, the lid finally slides off the sarcophagus and crashes to the floor, the accompanying sound causing all three of them to moan once again.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Anubis’ Chamber_

Like our heroes, the other American group is busy working. Right now, some of the remaining diggers are reaching into the compartment, but only because Kramer, Collins and Keller are holding them all at gunpoint. Finally, they pull out an ornate chest and set it down on the floor. Mozzie is also there, watching from a safe distance as the Egyptologist starts to translate the hieratics on it.

“There is a curse upon this chest,” he finally says as he turns to the three Americans.

Keller is the first to step forward, his gun still trained at the diggers.

“So what? I don’t care if there’s one or not.”

Kramer and Collins agree with a nod of their heads, nonetheless the Egyptologist gives them a dirty look.

“I’ll have you know that in these hallowed grounds, that which was set forth in ancient times is as strong today as it was then.”

Kramer comes closer, impatience written all over his face.

“Yeah, yeah.” He shrugs, feeling indifferent about anything than a treasure. “So, what does it say?”

The Egyptologist huffs a breath, but he starts to read the inscription nonetheless.

“Death will come on swift wings to whomever opens this chest.”

Right on cue, a gust of wind blows through the chamber, causing the torches on the walls to flicker, their flames to dance. The diggers are done now, and before any of the Americans can do something about it, they hightail out of the chamber, screaming in fear. Kramer, Collins and Keller look at each other, and for the first time, they seem a bit nervous themselves. The Egyptologist continues to read, his voice filled with fear.

“It also says that there is one, the undead, who, if brought back to life, is bound by sacred law to consummate this curse.”

Kramer, fed up with all this stupid fear from some ancient mumbo-jumbo, laughs.

“Well then, let’s try to not bring anyone back from the dead, huh?”

Keller and Collins join in his laughter, while Mozzie and the Egyptologist exchange a worried look. Nonetheless, the Egyptologist finishes reading the inscription.

“He will kill all who open this chest… and assimilate their organs, as well as their fluids.”

He can’t help but shudder, but the three Americans continue to be indifferent about the true meaning of the words.

“So,” Keller finally says, “are you saying that he will eat them?”

“Yes, and in doing so, he will regenerate. Which means that he’s no longer the undead, but a plague on this earth instead.”

Again, a gust of wind blows through the chamber, and once again, the torches flicker. Like before, Mozzie and the Egyptologist exchange a look, this time a fear-filled one. Slowly, Mozzie begins to regret what he has done. Kramer, on the other hand, just shrugs.

“Ah hell, let’s open it and get over with it.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Imhotep’s Chamber_

Peter and Neal finally have pulled the wooden coffin out of the sarcophagus, letting it drop to the ground next to it. For some reason, Elizabeth is very excited.

“Oh my God!” she exclaims while kneeling down. “That’s exactly what I have dreamed about since I was a little girl and read my first book about Ancient Egypt.”

Once again, Neal can’t believe what he’s hearing.

“You dream about dead guys?” he asks with a shake of his head, but all he gets from her is a somewhat dirty look. Thinking twice, he refrains from saying anything else, knowing that pissing her off wouldn’t get them anywhere.

Elizabeth starts to brush the dust and the cobwebs off the coffin. All of a sudden, she freezes, causing both men to look at her.

“What’s up, hon?” Peter inquires while grabbing the key from the lid.

“Look at that. What do you see?” She indicates the lid of the coffin, but all Peter and Neal can see is wood, nothing else.

“Nothing,” Peter answers, just as Neal leans a bit closer to the surface.

“Well, I see scratches, as if something has been removed from the surface, somewhat violently, I might add.”

Elizabeth beams at him, and Neal feels pride welling up in him. Apparently, he was right with his guess.

“Exactly,” El finally says, following one of the long scratches with her finger. “Normally, there would be a lot of hieratics and hieroglyphs covering the lid. They protect the deceased on their journey into the afterlife, but somehow they have been removed here, along with the sacred spells.”

“Why do you think did they, way back then?” Neal inquires.

“I can only think of one reason: Whoever was buried in that sarcophagus was cursed, doomed, even in the afterlife.”

“Meaning?” Neal and Peter almost ask simultaneously.

“Meaning that this guy here has done something really, really naughty.”

For a few moments, they all are silent, taking in this new batch of information. But before Elizabeth can do anything else, Peter steps forward with the key, intent on finding out who’s the mummy.

“Well, I’m all tears for this poor guy, but I suggest we have a look at who’s inside, shall we?”

Elizabeth only rolls her eyes, knowing her husband of ten years all too well. Peter inserts the key into the lock, and like before, he has to turn it until it suddenly snaps in place, causing the lid to crack open. Almost immediately, a foul stench comes out of the coffin, and our heroes groan upon smelling it.

Neal recovers first, and. while keeping his gag reflex in check, he grabs the lid and tries to pull it away. Apparently, it’s stuck in some place. Peter steps up, helps him pull. All of a sudden, the lid gives way, though very slowly – until it pops open, causing a maggot-infested, rotten corpse to literally jump up, almost into the faces of Neal, Peter and Elizabeth.

With a scream, they all jump back a few steps, trying to get some distance between them and the mummy. It seems the last four thousand years, give or take, haven’t been kind to the mummified body. The bones are twisted, deformed, small pieces of what once was a muscle, a ligament hanging from them. Finally, the mummy slumps back into the coffin, and our heroes can catch a breath and calm their racing hearts.

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_Anubis’ Chamber_

Back in the other chamber, Kramer and Keller are busy with the chest, trying to open its lid forcefully. From a distance, Mozzie and the Egyptologist watch them, worry etched into their faces. Suddenly, Mozzie starts to back away, toward the exit.

“The curse! Beware the curse!” he screams before bolting from the chamber. Mozzie probably had hopes that the three Americans might listen to him, but all that Keller does is spit on the floor next to him.

“God, is everyone crazy around here? I mean, I get them,” he jerks his head over toward the Egyptologist, “but I didn’t expect our guide to be a superstitious bastard as well.”

He just finishes his mini-rant when the seal on the lid breaks. Apparently, they have triggered another ancient booby trap, as they all are enveloped in a strange, black cloud coming from the inside of the chest. Not really a positive thing, is it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Imhotep’s Chamber_

With caution, Neal, Elizabeth and Peter creep forward, towards the coffin. They’ve had their share of scares for a day, thank you very much. Finally, they peer into the coffin, still creeped out.

“Dumb question, but he’s not supposed to look like that, right?” Neal asks, his eyes transfixed on the mummy in front of them.

“No, not at all,” Elizabeth answers. “I honestly have never seen a mummy like that.” She squints at the body, inspecting it more closely, but still from a distance. “He’s – I don’t know – he’s still so…”

“Juicy?” Peter suggests.

“Yeah.” She nods. “If I’m correct, this mummy is over four thousand years old and should be just some bones and dust, but apparently, this one here is still decomposing.”

“Look at that,” Neal suddenly says, indicating the inside of the lid. With a chill creeping up their spines, Peter and Elizabeth follow his hand to the clearly visible scratches of fingernails, along with some dried blood.

“Oh my God.” Elizabeth shudders. “He was buried alive.” Suddenly, she spots something beneath the scratches. “And apparently, he has left a message.”

“What does it say?” Peter asks.

Elizabeth has to read the hieratics twice before she’s sure of their meaning.

“It says ʻDeath is only the beginning.ʼ.”

She hasn’t even finished the sentence when she sees Neal looking around, somewhat frantic.

“What’re you looking for?” Peter inquires, his voice still a bit shaky.

“My gun!”

“What for? To shoot him?” Peter continues to ask, his voice this time bordering on incredulity.

Neal has made it to their bags, and while digging through his, he spins his head back to Peter.

“Well, if he decides to wake up completely, yes!!”

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	8. Chapter 7 – No Rest For The Mummies, Part II

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_Hamunaptra_

_Anubis‘ Chamber_

After what seems like an eternity, the black vapor from the chest finally settles, revealing that the second team of Americans has drawn their weapons and is pointing them at the chest. Their Egyptologist reaches into the chest, pulling out a heavy-looking bag. Keller, Kramer and Collins lower their weapons, the onset of fear in their eyes replaced by excitement and greed upon seeing the bag, feeling that they are close to the treasure they desired.

At long last, the Egyptologist sticks his hands into the bag, pulling out a large book. It’s the _Book of the Dead_ , exactly the same with which Imhotep wanted to resurrect Anck-su-namun.

The Egyptologist looks up at the Americans, knowing that they won’t be too pleased with what he has to tell them. But he also knows that you can’t change the facts.

“I have heard stories about this book, but until now I never believed them, thinking that this book was just one of the many, many mysteries this country has to offer.” He pauses, looking up at the three pairs of eyes directed at him. “This, my dear gentlemen, is the _Book of the Dead_ , and I’m afraid it’s a most priceless treasure.”

As predicted, the reactions from the Americans are far from happy. Kramer, usually the most collected of the three, kicks the sand in anger, causing another cloud of dust to settle on the Egyptologist and the remaining diggers. Keller and Collins curse in frustration, before Keller spins around to face the Egyptologist.

“Didn’t you say that it was made of pure gold, huh?”

“I never said that, and even if I did, I was referring to the _Book of the Living_ ,” the man returns, as calmly as possible.

Yet, he can’t prevent Keller from kicking the chest in frustration. This kick causes it to break open, revealing another hidden compartment. Inside are five canopic jars, and we realize that these are Anck-su-namun’s. While four of them are still intact, the fifth is broken, shattered even, and without its jewels. Somehow, this can’t mean anything good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little while later, another night is falling on Hamunaptra. The two digging parties have decided to join together. Neal and Mozzie are taking care of the dinner, while Keller, Kramer and Collins are sitting on one side of the campfire, each of them holding one of the canopic jars.

Peter joins them, but just as he sits down, he gets a whiff of the meat Neal and Mozzie are roasting over the fire, and try as he might, the smell is too disgusting to not wrinkle your nose.

“What on Earth are you roasting there?” Neal looks up at him, and for a fleeting second, Peter thinks he sees a glint of mischief in their companion’s eyes. “This smell is worse than that of our dear friend, the warden.” Just as he says it, he comes to another realization. “Are we…? Don’t tell me we are…”

Neal and Mozzie share a smile, knowing that they got him good, before Neal decides to put him out of his misery, so to speak.

“Nah, it’s rat gizzards. And yeah, they smell bad, but the taste is even worse. But it’s sadly the best the desert has to offer.”

Peter can’t help but shudder, but they only have so many supplies with them.

Laughter from the other Americans jolts him out of his reverie, and when he looks up, he sees them all fondling the jars.

“Hey, Caffrey,” Kramer speaks up, “what do you think we will get for each of them back home?”

Neal is still contemplating the question, when Collins joins the conversation.

“Congratulations, gentlemen. We heard the news about you having found yourselves a nice, gooey mummy.”

“Ya know,” Keller throws in, “if you dry him out, you still might be able to sell him for firewood.”

Neal and Peter remain silent when the others start to laugh. Leave it to them to add insult to injury.

Right that moment, Elizabeth joins them, dropping a big pile of bug skeletons on the ground while she sits down next to her husband.

“What the heck is that?” Keller exclaims, his eyes fixated on the pile.

“These,” Elizabeth starts, “are scarabs.” She looks around at the men, only to be met with various expressions, most of them slightly confused. “Also known as flesh eaters. I found them inside the coffin of our mummy. They are known for their ability to stay alive for years, only by living off the flesh of a corpse.”

The men around her shudder, their minds providing them with disgusting images of these bugs eating away at a body. After some seconds, Neal is the first to find his voice again.

“Let me get this straight.” He looks up and locks gazes with Elizabeth. “Are you really saying that whoever put our guy into the coffin, put these in there with him?” Elizabeth nods. “And then they ate him alive?”

“Yeah, and beyond that, very slowly,” Elizabeth replies.

“Well, there’s one thing I know for sure about that guy,” Peter thinks aloud. “He certainly wasn’t the most popular guy in his time, if they were doing so many disgusting things to him.” Another shudder accompanies the last part.

Despite these new facts, Neal can’t help but smile when a certain thought crosses his mind.

“You know, Peter, maybe he got a bit too frisky with the Pharaoh’s daughter.”

They all share a short laugh, but Neal misses the other look that crosses Peter’s face. Of their own volition, the images of his dreams have come to the front of his mind once again, seeing the man that looks like Neal and the woman that looks like Elizabeth in a lip-lock.

“Well, according to my readings,” Elizabeth says all of a sudden, “our friend probably suffered the Hom-Dai.” Again, she’s met with a round of confused expressions. “As far as I know, the Hom-Dai is the worst of all ancient Egyptian curses, and it was reserved for only the most evil blasphemers.” She pauses, taking a drink from her flask before continuing. “I did a lot of research so far, but I haven’t read about it being performed once.”

“That bad?” Neal can’t believe what he just has heard.

“Yeah, and you know why?” Neal shakes his head no. “They never performed it because they also feared it the most. The old texts state that if a victim of the Hom-Dai should ever manage to rise again, he would bring the ten plagues of Egypt with him.”

“The ten plagues?” Neal echoes, his eyebrows rising towards his hairline. “You mean all of them?”

“Yep,” Elizabeth answers, but before she can continue, Mozzie joins in.

“You mean like in the story of Moses and the Pharaoh?”

“Well,” Elizabeth turns around to face Neal’s friend, “that’s only one way to put it.”

Next to her, Peter starts to tick off them with his fingers.

“Let’s see, there were frogs, locusts, flies…”

“Hail and fire,” Collins continues, his own interest piqued.

“And the sun turning black,” Kramer throws in.

“And water turning to blood,” Keller finally speaks up as well.

“Yeah, and last but not least, my personal favorite,” Peter finishes, “people covered in boils and sores.”

They all, except for Elizabeth, share nervous looks with just the right amount of being spooked in them. Elizabeth on the other hand just grabs a meat stick and begins to eat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Later that evening, the whole camp is ready to call it a night. Having freshened up for bed, Elizabeth comes out of the temple, passing the native diggers on her way. Next to them, the Egyptologist is lying on a mat, snuggling both a canopic jar and the Book of the Dead close to his chest.

For some long seconds, Elizabeth just stares at the book, feeling curiosity swelling up inside of her. She’s a scholar after all, and it would mean the world to her to even just have a look at it. After another few seconds, she finally extracts the book carefully from the man’s grasp and heads over to where Peter and Neal are already sleeping.

Hearing her approach, Neal rolls over, thinking that she just might join them in sleeping. But when his eyes fall on the book in her lap, his senses are on alert once again.

“You think it’s safe for you to be playing around with that?” he says with a nod to the book.

“Yeah,” she shrugs, “it’s just a book. As far as I know, no harm ever came from a book.”

She finally opens the cover, causing the fire to flicker. She and Neal share a look, one just bordering on nervous. With a shrug, Elizabeth begins to read from the book.

“Ahm kum Ra. Ahm kum Dei.”

Unbeknownst to them, her voice carries down to the chamber with Imhotep’s coffin. Apparently, the words she reads aloud are doing something to the mummy, because all of a sudden, the eyelids pop open and we see for the first time that the eye sockets are empty.

Out in the camp, the Egyptologist awakes from his slumber, bolting to an upright position. There’s fear written all over his face when he spots Elizabeth reading from the book. He gets up and runs over to her, trying to stop her from causing too much damage.

“No! Nooooo! Stop! Don’t you continue!”

But before he can say anything more to Elizabeth, who just looks up at him, confused, they all can hear a strange, whining sound, which seems to come from the desert around them. Neal grabs his gun and leaps to his feet, the other Americans come out of their tents, armed as well. Only heartbeats later, a huge wall made of locusts swirls into the camp, enveloping everyone.

Neal grabs Elizabeth by the arm, causing her to drop the book, and together with Peter, they take off for the crevice, trying to find cover from the vermin. Mozzie and his team of Americans run for the temple. Remaining at the camp is the Egyptologist, who has picked up the book, looking at it in fear.

“Oh, what have we done!”, he says as his last words, just as his body is wholly covered by locusts.

In the meantime, our heroes are running down one of the corridors of the labyrinth. Though they all run at full speed, all three of them are covered in locusts, causing them to slap at themselves constantly.

“Hey! Did you see that?” Peter exclaims while fishing some of these disgusting vermin from his hair. “Grasshoppers! Billions of grasshoppers!”

Neal comes to a halt next to him, also trying to rid himself of his unwanted passengers.

“Yeah, I did. Isn’t that one of the plagues?” He plucks another from his locks. “The grasshopper plague?”

Elizabeth shakes her head, trying to come up with a more reasonable explanation for the events right now.

“No, it’s not a plague. Every so many years, Egypt suffers from something like that.” Neal and Peter look at her, unbelieving. “It happens when the locust population explodes, so to speak, and then they all take flight at once.”

Neal has lit a torch in the meantime, and they continue down the corridor – only to be stopped again when Elizabeth takes a step forward and they hear a squishing sound. Remaining perfectly still, Neal only lowers the torch, revealing the whole floor in front of them covered in frogs. He turns his head to Elizabeth.

“And what about frogs?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In another corridor, Mozzie, Collins, Kramer and Keller also try to get away from the locusts. All of a sudden, Collins stumbles, causing his glasses to fall down to the ground. But before he can locate them, they are crushed in the stampede. At last, Collins stumbles back to his feet, but all he can see are some blurry figures vanishing from his sight into the darkness surrounding him.

“Hey! Keller! Kramer! Wait on me!”

He begins to feel around him, but so far, he’s coming up empty.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back to our heroes and their own pack of problems. They have just passed the frog-covered floor somehow, when all of a sudden, the ground begins to shake, like in an earthquake. Again, they skid to a stop, trying to get ready for anything that might happen next.

As it turns out, the earthquake is just the company for hundreds of thousands scarab beetles coming out of the ground. Their chittering fills the air, giving anyone in hearing distance the creeps. But more frightening is the fact that these bugs are starting after our heroes, who turn on their heels with a scream and haul it out of the corridor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the meantime, Collins continues to stagger around in the passageway he’s in, still trying to catch up with his friends. All of a sudden, a dark figure steps out right in front of him. Exhaling in relief, Collins staggers up to the figure.

“Hey, Keller, that you?” But the figure doesn’t react. “Kramer?”

Again, the figure doesn’t show any reaction to the name. Collins is confused, and that causes him to trip over something and stumble forward, toward the figure. At last, he can reach out to the figure, but instead of meeting the solid chest of a human, his fingers sink into the putrid cavity that is Imhotep’s chest. They come up covered in rotten flesh, but before Collins can scream, Imhotep puts a skeletal hand over his mouth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Elsewhere, Neal and the Burkes are still on the run from the scarabs. Right now, they race up a stairway, just a few feet in front of the mass of bugs. Neal and Peter jump to a pedestal on one side, Elizabeth into a grotto on the other side of the stairway. The bugs scurry up the stairway between them, but the respite is short-lived when all of a sudden, the wall behind Elizabeth opens and causes her to fall through an opening. Neal and Peter only can watch with unbelieving eyes.

“Elizabeth!”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the other side of the wall, Elizabeth sits up on the floor, shaking sand out of her hair once again. Finally, she looks around, a fearful expression on her face. But she can’t make out anything, it’s almost pitch black inside here. Slowly, she scrambles to her feet, using the wall next to her to feel her way along. A few feet in front of her, a crack in the ceiling lets some rays of moonlight filter into the room, just enough for Elizabeth to make out the silhouette of a man standing right in the middle of this room. With as much determination as possible in this situation, Elizabeth walks up.

“Thank God! I was afraid I might get lost in here. You’re one of the other Americans, right?”

As if hearing her voice, the man turns around, revealing himself as Collins. Though he’s missing something vital – his eyes. Upon seeing the empty sockets staring at her, Elizabeth jumps back with a scream, only to bump into something. With another scream, she spins around, right into Imhotep, who looks horrible with just the eyeballs in his still mummified face. Screaming for a third time, Elizabeth backs up, until her back hits a wall. Horror is written all over her face.

Imhotep just watches her with his new pair of eyes. It’s been quite some time since he saw a woman so beautiful as this one. Even though her whole appearance is less than stellar, she’s a sight for his sore eyes. With a squint, he closes the distance to her.

“Anck-su-namun?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back on the other side of the chamber, Neal and Peter try to find a way to Elizabeth, but so far, they’ve come up empty.

“Damn it!” Neal exclaims, hitting the side of the grotto in frustration. “There must be a trap door or something like that around here!”

Before Peter can reply, they hear men screaming, and only a heartbeat later, Kramer, Keller and one of the diggers race up the stairway.

“Caffrey! You better run!” Kramer yells as he passes them, right before they all hear the already familiar chittering of scarabs closing in on them. Neal and Peter waste no time in joining them, when suddenly, the digger trips on the stairs and falls down to the ground.

Neal wants to help him, pull him back on his feet, but just as he reaches him, the scarabs run over the man’s body, causing him to scream in horror. As the others watch in similar horror, the scarabs eat away at him, leaving only a half-eaten skeleton behind before taking off after the rest of the group. Neal is the first to haul ass out of the chamber, with the others following him close.

Back in the scarab chamber, Elizabeth is still plastered to the wall, her whole body shaking in fear. Collins, or what is left of him, stands to the side, just as if he’s watching the scene playing out in front of him. With Imhotep closing in on her, Elizabeth turns her head to Collins in a last attempt to gain his attraction, and subsequently, his help.

“Please, help me. Please!”

Apparently, he still can hear her, since Collins opens his mouth. But instead of an answer, all that he can do is gurgle and moan, and only now, Elizabeth realizes that Imhotep not only has taken his eyes, but his tongue as well. Speaking of Imhotep: feeling somewhat disturbed by the man, he grabs Collins and throws him to the ground, before setting his skeletal foot on the man’s chest. Looking back at Elizabeth, Imhotep opens his mouth, burning the horrifying image of a fresh, meaty tongue between two rows of rotten teeth into her brain.

“Kadeesh pharos Anck-su-namun!”

Just as these words cause another round of shivering to run through Elizabeth’s body, Neal comes around the corner, skidding to a stop right next to her.

“Geez, woman, would you quit playing around?” he rants. “Let’s get out of here!”

Just now, he notices the haunted, frightened look in her eyes, and that they are not exactly focused on him, but more on something behind his back. Neal spins around, only to be met with the disgusting figure of Imhotep.

“Whoa!”

They both start back away down the wall. Imhotep comes after them, giving the appearance of gliding over the floor, sand swirling, almost dancing around him. They see Collins crawling away, but they can’t do anything for him. All they can do is trying to save their own hides.

Imhotep, still gliding after Neal and Elizabeth, suddenly stops, unhinges his jaw. With his mouth now extended to an inhuman size, it’s an easy task for him to unleash a horrifying shriek.

“Anck-su-namuun!”

This causes both Elizabeth and Neal to scream, but Neal pretty soon recovers and roars back at Imhotep while blasting him with his elephant gun. This causes the mummy to stumble back, and we see that Neal managed to blow half of Imhotep’s ribcage away. Pleased with himself, Neal grabs Elizabeth by the arm and haul her over to where he guesses is the exit.

Just as the two run out of the exit of the crevice, they are stopped dead in their tracks when they come face to face with at least ten heavily armed Mumia, who don’t hesitate to raise their guns.

Neal and Elizabeth raise their hands, just as quickly as the Mumia did their guns, and only now they see that the rest of the group, namely Peter, Kramer, Keller and the Egyptologist, are already kneeling in the sand, their hands raised to their heads. At last, Dian Bey steps forward from between the riders, her dark eyes directing fire at Neal and the others.

“I told you to leave or die, yet you refused. Now you may have killed us all.” She stops right in front of Neal and Elizabeth. “You have unleashed the creature that we have feared for so long, for more than four thousand years.”

“Hey, relax,” Neal suddenly says, causing her to whip around and pin him with her eyes, “I got him.”

“No, you didn’t.” Now it’s Neal’s turn to stare at her. “No mortal weapon can kill him. Nothing, since this creature is not of this world.”

If Neal Caffrey is one thing, then it’s that he just can’t back down from a discussion.

“Are we even talking about the same thing?” Dian’s face is unexpressive, but her eyes dare him to continue. “A walking corpse, with a really big mouth, and, I might add, really bad breath?”

Dian doesn’t answer, only nods slowly. And that’s more than enough to (a) shut Neal up and (b) give them all the creeps.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While Neal and the others are still at the mercy of Dian Bey and her Mumia, we finally learn that Mozzie is still scurrying around the labyrinth. Right now, he has made his way into Anubis’ Chamber, when all of a sudden, he bumps into Imhotep. Scared, he fires his gun at the mummy, but like with Neal’s elephant gun, the bullets have next to no effect on the skeletal body.

Backing away from Imhotep, Mozzie grabs all the chains hanging from his neck, revealing all the religious symbols dangling from them. At first, he holds a Christian crucifix up, while making the sign of the cross and blessing himself in English.

“May the good Lord protect and watch over me, just like a shepherd would watch over his flock. And may Satan, in all his forms and variations, be vanquished for all eternity.”

It does nothing to Imhotep, who still advances on Mozzie. Next one up is an Islamic Sword and Crescent Moon necklace, followed by one with a Hindu Brahma medallion and one with a small Buddhist Bodhisattva statue. With every new necklace, he blesses himself in the appropriate language, ranging from Arabic to Hindi, Chinese and Latin. Last but not least, just as Imhotep reaches out for Mozzie’s throat with one of his skeletal hands, he brings up the last of his necklaces, one with a Star of David. With tears running down his face and lacing his voice, he blesses himself in Hebrew. All of a sudden, Imhotep stops his advances, and if the mummy would have a face, one could see a puzzled expression on it.

“The language of the slaves,” Imhotep says in Hebrew, causing Mozzie not only to release the breath he was holding, but also to take a step back.

“I may have use for you,” Imhotep continues, and while he reaches into his tattered robe, he explains. “The rewards will be great.”

At last, he holds out one of his skeletal hands, filled with maggots. Upon seeing them, Mozzie cringes and is about to throw up, just as they part and reveal a tiny pile of jewels. With his other hand, Imhotep holds up something, and we see it’s the broken canopic jar from the chest.

“Where are the other sacred jars?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the crevice, our heroes watch as some of the Mumia drag Collins out of the labyrinth. It’s a horrific sight for everyone, seeing him staring out with empty eye sockets, but most of all for Keller and Kramer.

“You bastards!” Keller screams at the Mumia, thinking that they did that to their friend.

“What the hell did you do to him?” Kramer joins in, only to be stopped by Dian Bey’s hand.

“We did nothing to him! Except for saving him. If not for us, the creature would have returned and finished his work on him.” She spins away from Kramer, facing all of them. “Now you all better leave, as quickly as possible, or he might finish you all.”

“You’re not going to kill us?” Peter pipes up, and Neal and Elizabeth can’t help but groan, before Elizabeth elbows him in the ribs. Dian Bey doesn’t react to his words, not exactly, but continues to explain.

“We now must hunt him down. We have to try and find a way to kill him, before he consumes all of the Earth. May Allah be with us all.”

With that, the Mumia all start heading down the crevice. Trying one more time to convince himself, Neal turns his head around and yells at them.

“Hey! I told you I got him, nice and square!”

Dian stops in her tracks, spins around and pins Neal with a deadly serious look in her eyes.

“Just keep that in mind: the creature will come for you, all of you. He must consummate the curse.” She pauses, not wavering in her stare. “And until he does, he will not eat, he will not sleep and he will not stop at any cost, never.”

Before any of them can say anything, she jumps after her soldiers, leaving the adventurers to their own devices.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sometime later, our heroes have decided to follow her advice and leave this cursed place behind. Neal and Peter help Elizabeth onto a camel before getting up on their own. Next to them, Keller and Kramer boost up Collins onto another before following their example. Another few feet away, the Egyptologist does the same, all the while clutching the Book of the Dead. At last, they all head off into the dark desert. Unnoticed by them, a skeletal hand suddenly punches out of the sand, accompanied by another horrific shriek – Imhotep once again screams for his lost love, Anck-su-namun.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


	9. Chapter 8 – Lover’s Reunion - Averted

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_Cairo_

_British Fort_

After the long trek through the desert, our heroes finally arrive at the British Fort, all of them tired to the bone and covered in sweat and dust. One of the soldiers manning the gate check their papers before letting them pass into the yard, sensing that they all just need some foot, some sleep and a bath – in any order possible.

Sometime later, a visibly refreshed Neal Caffrey enters the quarter of the Burkes, carrying a large steamer trunk. Slamming it down on the floor, he proceeds over to where Elizabeth’s dresses are hanging. He grabs a few of them and chucks them into the trunk.

“And I thought you didn’t believe in this stuff?” he says to Elizabeth, who comes out of another room and begins to put the dresses back in the closet.

“Well, having a real encounter with one of them has that effect on one. And actually running into a four-thousand-year-old, walking, talking corpse tends to convert even someone like me.”

In the meantime, Neal has continued over to the drawer with her underthings, chucking them into the trunk as well, just as she grabs them and takes them back out.

“Well, here’s an update for you: Forget it! We’re gonna get out of here, as soon as possible.”

“No, we’re not!” Elizabeth fires back, jamming her hands on her hips in a mixture of frustration and rebellion.

“Oh, believe me, we are!” Neal replies without stopping in his mission to pack her luggage for her.

Elizabeth, still stunned by this display of brazenness, can’t help but counter him once more.

“No, we are not.” Finally, Neal spins around to her, daring her with his electric blue eyes to continue. “We woke him up, now it’s up to us to find a way to stop him. Or at least try to.”

“What?!” Neal exclaims. “We?” he echoes. “As far as I can remember, I didn’t read that damned book. And wasn’t it me who told you not to play around with something you obviously have no clue about?”

Elizabeth realizes that the man, brazen or not, has a valid point.

“All right then, me. _I_ read that book, _I_ woke him up, and _I_ intend to stop him.”

Holding one of her bras, Neal throws up his hands, giving the soft material a dangerous stretch in the process.

“I can’t believe you, woman! Did you hear a single word of what that other woman was saying, huh?” He pauses, taking a breath, which Elizabeth uses to save the bra from his clutches. “No mortal weapon, meaning no weapon we know of now, can kill that guy.” Like Elizabeth before, he slams his hands into his hips now. “So tell me how you would like to manage to stop him then?”

“Well,” Elizabeth shrugs as she continues to unpack her clothes, “we just have to find some immortal weapons then.”

“Again, ʻweʼ?” Neal echoes. “No, not me. I didn’t sign up for anything like that. I’m outta here!”

In a last bout of frustration, Neal chunks some of her shoes into the chest, but just as he does so, Elizabeth kicks the lid of the trunk, causing it to slam down on his fingers. With a yelp, Neal gets up and dashes out of the room into another, with Elizabeth hot on his heels.

“Neal!” He finally stops, spinning around to face her. “According to that book, once this guy has been reborn, his curse will spread. Apart from that, he will grow in strength, and with that, the strength of the curse will grow, until it has infected every single human walking this Earth, resulting in the complete destruction of Earth.”

“So you’re telling me it’s my problem?” Neal returns, but he can feel the fire behind his words slowly ebbing.

“Of course it is!” Elizabeth replies, incredulity heavy in her voice. “It’s everybody’s problem!”

Heaving a sigh, Neal tries to calm himself down a bit. As stunning as Elizabeth can be, she can be quite a handful, too.

“Look, Elizabeth, I appreciate what you and Peter did for me, with saving my life and all, I really do. But all I did sign up for was to get the two of you out there and back in one piece, which I did. Now I’d like to think we’re even, end of the job, a contract between two parties fulfilled.”

He inwardly cringes at his choice of words and, as if on cue, he sees her shoulders slightly sag.

“So, that’s all we are to you? Just a contract, nothing else?”

The hurt is evident in her voice, and Neal curses himself. _Way to go, Caffrey, alienating one of the few women who could stand your presence without any past resentment._

“Well… yeah. But you can tag along with me, you and Peter, or you can stay here, trying to figure out how to put Mister Maggot back where he belongs without dying in the process.”

For a moment, they both are silent, and it appears to Neal that Elizabeth is really considering his offer, but his hope of getting them all out of here dies the second she opens her mouth again.

“No, I’m staying.” Sensing that Neal is about to protest, she stops him with a hand. “I was raised that you fix what you’ve been messing up, or at least do everything in your power to do so.”

“Fine!” Neal says, and once again, he cringes at the harshness of his own words. But, he reasons to himself, having a brush with death twice within a short time might do that to a man. Getting to his feet, Neal storms out of the room and slams the door, only to open said door a few heartbeats later to drop some of Elizabeth’s underthings to the floor.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some minutes later, Neal crosses the compound of the fort, anger still radiating from him in heavy waves. Out of the corner, he sees Mozzie walking around, accompanied by a man dressed in a hooded robe, his face hidden behind an ornate mask.

“Hey, Mozzie!” Neal yells, his voice probably loud enough to be heard in the market down the road. “You little stinkweed, you still made it out of there?”

Mozzie and his new companion come up to where Neal is standing, and upon seeing that Neal is as angry as never before, Mozzie decides to keep his whole behavior as calm as possible.

“Well, Neal, I somehow did it.” Mozzie gives Neal a taxing once-over. “Since you left me out there! You left me out there to rot!”

Somehow, these last two sentences do something to Neal, and for the first time in all their rough friendship, Mozzie sees something genuine in Neal’s eyes – which is gone as quick as it has appeared, when Neal’s gaze settles on Mozzie’s companion.

“Yeah, sorry about that.” Neal gestures at Imhotep. “So, who’s your companion here?”

“Neal, may I introduce you to Prince Imhotep, High Priest of Osiris.”

“Hi,” Neal says while sticking out his hand in greeting, “how you’re doing?”

But instead of shaking it, Imhotep recoils upon seeing the hand. Neal, feeling suspicion about this guy growing inside of him, gives him the once-over, but before he can voice any concern, Mozzie jumps to an explanation.

“You see, Neal, the prince doesn’t like to be touched by other humans,” he leans a bit closer to Neal and continues in a stage whisper, “you know, just one of those silly eastern superstitions, okay?”

Neal seems to buy this explanation, or at least he’s good at pretending to do so.

“Well, he’s not the only one. We all got our little problems to carry these days, right?”

Mozzie nods, feeling somewhat relieved that Neal took his word for truth, even just this once.

“Prince Imhotep has come to help Mr. Collins. Believe it or not, but I somehow feel responsible for what has happened to him.”

Neal’s reaction to that statement somewhat surprises Mozzie. He had expected Neal to unleash the anger he was radiating at him, but instead, his young friend all but dissolves in peals of laughter upon hearing it.

“You?” Neal asks while still trying to recover. “Oh, please, Mozzie, don’t give me that. Of all the people I know, you were the last one to have any scruples.”

Mozzie has the dignity to gasp, accompanied with a hand over his heart, but true to his character, he recovers pretty fast.

“So, Neal, can you tell where I could steal some?”

Neal throws a fake-punch at Mozzie before taking off to some other place. In passing, he stage-whispers something along the lines of, “See you around, padre,” to Imhotep, causing the mummy to glare at Neal’s retreating form from behind the mask.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another cut in time, and this time we’re inside your typical Egypt Casbah of these days. You see travelers from all over the world, trying to make a deal or drowning a loss in literal rivers of booze. Beautiful (and some not so beautiful) women try to gain their attention, and some of them might even get lucky.

At one of the tables just off the far corner of the bar, an older guy, dressed in British fighter pilot gear from World War I is talking to some customers, all of them quite drunk. Meet Hale, like so many other men of this time stranded here in Egypt. Back in the day, he was with the Royal Air Force, but thanks to fate, he’s the last one of his company. All his comrades have already died, their bodies scattered throughout the desert.

When the customers shove him away from their table, Hale staggers over to where Neal and Peter are sitting, continuing on spinning his tale without missing a single beat.

“You know, my friends, ever since the war ended, I haven’t found a single challenge worthy of a man like me.”

Neal heaves a sigh before shoving the older man over to Peter.

“Hate to tell you that, Hale, but I’ve heard that tale before. Probably more times than I wanted to.”

Hale heaves a sigh as well, but while Neal’s is slightly laced with pain, his is a wistful one, and his face changes to a dreamy expression.

“I just wish that fate would have been kinder to me, taking me down with my laddies in a blaze of glory. But no, I got to life my live sitting around here, wasting the rest of it with boredom and booze!”

Peter gives him another, though not so gentle, shove, causing him to stagger towards another table. In the same moment, Keller and Kramer sidle up to the bar, sitting down on the two stools next to Peter and Neal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the fort, Collins is in his room, together with Mozzie and Imhotep. Mozzie has just explained to him that for lending his help and services, the Prince asks for a gift, as a token. After some thinking, Collins gestures to his drawer and tries to explain, but it’s quite some task to form coherent sentences without a tongue.

“That drawer there, some spectacles.” His attempt to laugh comes out just as an indefinable sound. “As you can see, I won’t be needing them anymore.”

Imhotep takes the glasses out of the top drawer, spins them around in his skeletal hands before putting them over his mask. He grins, and if Collins would still have had his eyes, he would be appalled by the sudden appearance of rotten teeth behind the mask.

Imhotep turns back to Mozzie, motioning for him to continue.

“Mr. Collins, Prince Imhotep thanks for your glasses.” Mozzie pauses, and for the first time since striking this deal with the devil, he hesitates. But just the feeling of Imhotep’s gaze is enough to make him continue. “And for your eyes… and your tongue…”

Suddenly, comprehension dawns on Collins, and his expression changes to that of puzzlement and confusion, mixed with fear. But before he can make any sound, Mozzie continues.

“But I’m afraid Prince Imhotep isn’t done. More is needed, since he has to consummate the curse you and your friends have brought upon this land.”

Now, all other expressions are gone from Collins’ face, and fear is taking up residence. Mozzie, always the quick thinker, backs out of the room, not interested in spending one more minute in there.

Imhotep spots the canopic jar sitting on the far corner of the drawer, and with a grin, he picks it up. Still grinning, he turns around, back to Collins, but this time he removes the mask covering his face, revealing his still hideous, rotten, shattered skeletal skull.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the Casbah, Neal and Peter are still sitting at the bar with Kramer and Keller. The barkeeper refills their glasses and, without giving them a second glance, they clink them and slug the alcohol down – or at least that’s what they had planned. Instead, the four men, along with almost everyone in the bar, spit out their drinks instantly. Kramer is the first to recover, disgust written all over his face.

“Sweet Lord!” He shudders. “That just tasted like…” He snaps his fingers, trying to find the right word for this disgusting taste still sitting on his tongue.

“I would say like blood,” Neal provides, quite matter-of-factly.

They share a concerned, nervous look, before Peter speaks up, apparently reciting something from a text.

“And the rivers and waters of Egypt went red and were red as blood.”

Peter hasn’t quite finished when Neal jumps away from the bar over to the exit.

“He’s here!” he yells, and the others can’t help but hurry after him. Peter catches up with him first.

“Who is here, Neal? Who are you talking about?”

“The priest! The guy!” He takes off towards the fort, fear fueling his energy. “The mummy!” Neal finally yells back over his shoulder before breaking into a hard sprint up the road, the sudden appearance of heavy lightning accompanying him.

Arriving at the compound, Neal still runs at a neck-breaking speed, crossing the yard in no time. The soldiers jump out of his way, the fear-stricken expression on his face enough for them to let him pass. Only a few unlucky ones, who saw him too late, get knocked out of the way.

While Neal races up the stairs, screaming for Elizabeth at the top of his lungs, Peter, Keller and Kramer arrive at the gates, also running at full speed.

At another part of the courtyard, Elizabeth calmly steps out of a room, carrying a stack of books. Suddenly, a blast of thunder and lightning disturbs the night, and causes her to drop almost all of her books. Just as she’s about to pick them up, a hand grabs her and spins her around. To her relief, it’s only Neal, but something about his whole behavior gives her the creeps nonetheless. Catching his breath, Neal gives her a once-over, making sure that she’s fine and unharmed.

“We… we got problems.”

That’s all he gets out before the weather takes another turn for the worse, and this time, a barrage of hail and fire rains down on the courtyard, causing some of the water fountains to burst into steam and setting some of the wooden trellises framing the courtyard to go up in flames. Snapping out of his onset of shock, Neal grabs Elizabeth, pushing her under the eaves, while everyone else is all but going nuts in search of a safe place.

“He’s here!” Neal says, and due to the chaos around them, he has to yell, even with Elizabeth so close. “I saw him! That thing is here!”

Elizabeth’s eyes go wide, and try as he might, Neal isn’t exactly sure if this reaction stems from fear or from curiosity.

“You sure?” Elizabeth asks, with just the right amount of doubt to her voice. “The creature is really here?”

Neal has to put up a fight to not roll his eyes at her. Instead, he gestures to the hail and fire still raining down on them.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure.”

Right that moment, the unexpected natural disaster comes to a sudden stop, causing the whole courtyard to go completely silent, giving the situation an eerie spin. Neal and Elizabeth both freeze, sensing that something even worse is about to take place any second.

And they are right, since only heartbeats later, a blood-curdling scream cuts the silence like a sharp knife. It comes from the living quarters right above them – Collins’ quarters. Neal races up the stairs, with Elizabeth hot on his heels, and into the room. A servant running out of the same room causes them both to skid to a stop, and that’s when they spot what’s left of Collins lying on the floor. The once normal-sized body is shriveled to half its size, and it’s pretty obviously that it’s missing all of his organs and bodily fluids.

Still shocked, Neal and Elizabeth’s gazes are locked on the body, But then, another loud moan cuts the silence. They both look up and only now notice the man standing on the other side of the room. Recognizing the guy, Neal draws his gun, while pulling Elizabeth behind him.

They both watch in horror as Imhotep regenerates more of his body. Skin is forming, muscles return to their once powerful form, tendons ripple throughout his whole body. Suddenly, his mouth opens wide, letting a pain-laced moan pass through his new lips.

Neal recovers first, trying to comprehend everything that just has taken place.

“Now it’s official: we’re in serious trouble.” Imhotep starts closing in on them, and Neal opens fire on him. “Will you back off, you creep?”

But all that the bullets do is rip through his new body, not stopping the regenerated mummy in his advance at all.

Suddenly, Peter, Keller and Kramer burst into the room, but just as Neal and Elizabeth before, they are too stunned to react at first. With frustration bubbling up inside of him, Neal steps forward, throwing a right hook at Imhotep – which just results in his fist getting stuck inside the still rotten skull. Disgusted, Neal pulls his hand back out, and witnesses Imhotep’s face, – or at least the part where Neal’s hand had contact with it, – as it degenerates and decays in a matter of seconds, as if something on Neal’s skin set a quick-spreading virus to it.

With an angry roar, Imhotep turns to face Neal, grabs him and throws him across the room, right at Peter and the others, knocking them down in the process. Surprisingly enough, the hand that grabbed Neal goes through the same degeneration as part of his head. Not even caring about it, Imhotep finally sets his sight on Elizabeth, who tries to back away, a frightened, terrorized expression marring her features.

He speaks to her in his native language, and from what she’s able to understand in her frightened state, he thanks her for saving him from the undead and offers her to make immortal. Under different circumstances, Elizabeth might even consider this a tempting offer, but not when there’s chaos and destruction accompanying this guy wherever he goes.

Just as he leans in to kiss her with his decayed face, an unexpected ally comes to her rescue – a white cat that jumps onto the piano, hissing loudly as soon as it senses the ancient intruder. Imhotep spins around, shrieking at the cat, before dissolving in a swirl of wind and dust and leaving. Heaving a deep breath, our heroes try to calm down, still rooted to their respective spots. Once again, it’s Kramer who recovers first, kneeling down next to the remains of his friend Collins.

“Hate to say this aloud, but I’m afraid we’re truly dealing with the curse our Egyptologist was talking about back in Hamunaptra.”

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	10. Chapter 9 – The Enemy Of My Enemy Is My Friend

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_Cairo_

_Museum of Antiquities_

Later that day, Peter, Neal, Keller and Kramer follow Elizabeth as she leads them through the heart of the museum, the Ramsesseum. Without turning back to any of the guys, Elizabeth explains why they are here.

“If anyone might be able to give us some answers, we will find him here.”

They round yet another corner, only to see the curator speaking with no one other than Dian Bey, causing them all to stop dead in their tracks. After everything that has happened so far, they can’t believe that these two are talking to each other.

“You!” almost everyone says at the same time, and under different circumstances, this might have been just this side of hilarious. But since their collective nerves are still rattled from this morning’s adventures, nobody is really surprised as Neal, Keller and Kramer pull their guns. If anything, Dian just scowls at them. Hughes, on the other hand, blatantly ignores the guns, he just nods at the group in greeting.

“Elizabeth. Gentlemen.”

But Elizabeth can’t be stopped with just a few pleasantries. Her eyes all but shoot fire when she walks up to Hughes and Dian, fixing the other woman in place with a gaze.

“What the heck is she doing here?”

Hughes can’t help but sigh upon hearing her question. He knew from the day he took her in that Elizabeth Mitchell was a handful, but that was definitely something new, even for her standards.

“Do you really want to know, Elizabeth? Or would you prefer to just shoot us?” Hughes finally answers, though he directs the second question to three men behind her, causing everyone to tense up. At last, Neal is the first to un-cock his gun.

“You know, sir, I just saw my fist vanishing into some guy’s head.” He slides the gun back into his shoulder holster, seeing Kramer and Keller following his example from the corner of his eyes. “Don’t know about the others, but I’m willing to go on a little faith here,” Neal says with as much conviction as possible in his voice. Still, the scowl on Hughes’ face tells him that the curator doesn’t really buy his words.

“You will not believe it,” Hughes finally says to him.

“Just try me,” Neal replies, his voice a perfect mix of challenge and cockiness.

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A short time later, everyone is assembled around the big tomb display of Seti I., the heart of Ramsesseum. The most prominent exhibits are the chariot and the sword of the late Pharaoh. Sitting down on Seti’s throne, Hughes launches into an explanation as to why Dian is here and how the two came to know each other.

“Dian and I are part of an ancient secret society called the cult of the Mumia. Ever since the beginning, this cult has one sacred mission, passed down through about thirty-nine generations. For more than four thousand years, we have guarded the City of the Dead. As soon as we reach adolescence, we are sworn to do any and all in our power to stop the High Priest Imhotep,” he sees some shocked recognition on the others’ faces as he says the name, “from being reborn into this world.”

Dian steps up to the tomb, her face still somber, bordering on anger.

“And thanks to you all, we have failed.” She fixes everyone with her dark eyes. “After thousands of years of doing the job successfully, I might add.”

“But tell me: does that justify killing innocent people?” Elizabeth asks, her eyes fixed on Hughes.

“If it means we can stop this creature? Definitely yes!” Hughes answers, causing Elizabeth to look at her mentor, appalled at his cold-blooded willingness to sacrifice some human lives.

Sensing that this might escalate before they get any real answers, Neal asks the next question.

“Let’s get back to the problem at hand, shall we?” He looks around at everyone else. “As we all have witnessed this morning, this Imhotep guy is apparently afraid of cats. Any explanation for that?”

“Well,” Hughes begins, “according to the ancient beliefs, cats are viewed as the guardians of the gates to the underworld. As long as he’s not fully regenerated, Imhotep will fear them.”

“And what happens when he succeeds in regenerating?” Peter asks, already having a hunch as to what might be the answer – and that none of them will probably like it.

“If he does, Peter, he will stop at nothing,” Hughes all but deadpans. “Not until the Earth as we know it today is utterly destroyed and the population is pretty close to extinction.”

For some seconds, the room is shrouded in silence, as everyone is processing everything they just have learned. Keller, still freaked out of his mind upon seeing what this undead guy did to his friend Collins, is the first to speak up.

“Yeah, and you know how he regenerates?” He looks at Neal, tension running high between the two. “By killing everyone who opened that chest, sucking them dry. That’s how!” For emphasis, he punches the closest surface, which just happens to be a sarcophagus, with his open hand.

“Yes, that’s right.” Hughes answers after a few seconds. “The curse forces him to try and regenerate first, and only after he succeeds in doing so, can he attempt to resurrect the one he has loved, more than anything else.”

“Anck-su-namun,” Elizabeth says all of a sudden, causing not only Hughes and Dian to give her a more than perplexed look. How on Earth does she know this name?

“Well, back in Hamunaptra, in the necropolis, I fell through a trap door, landing pretty much at his feet. That’s where I saw him alive for the first time, and that’s also where he called that name.” She swallows, and everyone can see the slight tremors running over her body at the memory. “And just this morning, in Mr. Collins’ room, he even tried to kiss me.”

Hughes get up, closing the distance to the woman he considers a daughter, and try as he might, he can’t quite contain a sigh before answering.

“You wanna know why?” Elizabeth nods, and from the corner of his eyes, Hughes sees Peter and their companion nod as well. “It’s because you were the one to read from the Book. Only because of that action, he has chosen you to be the human sacrifice.”

“Human sacrifice for what?” Neal answers, the concern for Elizabeth’s wellbeing evident in his voice.

“To regenerate Anck-su-namun’s body, to unify her mummified corpse with her organs once again.”

Peter and Neal exchange a look. This is getting better and better with every new bit of information. Finally, Peter scratches his ear, sighing loudly.

“This is no good, no good at all.”

But before he can ask anyone for a plan on how to save his wife, their common attention is drawn to Dian, who has walked over to a wall of windows.

“Tonight is the full moon, also known as the Moon of Osiris.” She turns slightly around. “It will begin tonight.”

And that’s when everyone else notices that the sun is just about to go into a full eclipse, shrouding Egypt in darkness.

“ʼ…and he stretched forth his hands towards the heavens, and there was darkness throughout the land of Egypt,ʼ” Peter recites with a solemn voice, just as everyone is staring out of the windows, not quite believing what they are witnessing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

_British Fort_

Finally, the group, except for Hughes and Dian, retreats to their quarters at the British Fort, trying to come up with a plan to stop Imhotep.

While Neal keeps an eye on the courtyard for any threat, both Peter and Elizabeth pace the room. Keller and Kramer have positioned themselves at the door, just in case.

“Okay,” Elizabeth says, “our primary goal is to stop him from regenerating, somehow.” She paces a few steps before turning around to Keller and Kramer. “So tell me: who of your group opened that chest?”

“Well, there was Matthew and Kyle, Mr. Collins to you, and me, of course, and the Egyptologist, of course. He was the one to pull that damned book out of the chest!” Kramer answers.

Neal turns away from the window, fixing Kramer with a gaze.

“What about my friend Mozzie? Was he with you?”

“Naw,” Keller answers, barely keeping the sneer from his voice. “He scrammed out of there before it got serious.”

Somehow, Neal is relieved about this answer. Sure, it doesn’t change the fact that Mozzie is a pain in the ass, but Neal doesn’t want to see him fall victim to this mummy guy, either. These days, friends are hard to come by, so one is well-advised to look out for those he already has.

“Okay,” Elizabeth finally says, determination evident both in her face and her voice, “what we have to do now is to find this Egyptologist and get him here to the fort, to safety, before the creature can get to him.”

Neal looks at her and nods his agreement to this plan before turning slightly to face Keller and Kramer as well.

“Okay. Elizabeth, you stay here.” He points at Keller and Kramer. “You two come with me, we’ll get your Egyptologist here to the fort.”

He barely has finished the last sentence when he’s literally bombarded with words from three sides. Keller and Kramer are downright refusing to leave the safety of the fort, and they make it clear that there’s no room whatsoever for negotiations. Elizabeth, on the other hand is, once again, enraged by the fact that Neal has taken over the command, as well as that he apparently doesn’t think she’s capable of looking out for herself.

“Pray tell me, Neal,” she begins, “who the heck put you in charge, huh? As far as I can remember, you were the one who wanted to get out of here as fast as possible just this morning.” She pauses, but before Neal can say anything, she continues. “And just so you know: I was the one to read from the book and cause this whole conundrum, so I won’t let you stop me from being the one to clean it up.”

Neal, always one to know when to fold and declare a defeat, doesn’t give her an answer, he just sighs. Good thing, he thinks, that he can change tactics in a heartbeat, otherwise he would be in a constant crisis ever since this adventure started. Taking a deep breath, he grabs Elizabeth by the arm and pulls her over to her bedroom, locking the door with a skeleton key. Ignoring her pounding and yelling, which, due to the closed door, is somewhat muffled, he throws the key to Keller.

“You, my friend, are going to keep an eye on her.” He jabs a thumb over his shoulder at the door before getting into Keller’s personal space, issuing a clear warning. “If you fail and leave her door, I’m coming for you. Got me?” Keller, probably scared out of his wits for the first time ever in his life, only can nod. Satisfied, Neal turns back to Peter, who’s still trying to wrap his mind around what just has happened. “Peter, you’re with me. C’mon.” With that, Neal starts for the door, and Peter can only swallow hard, thinking, ʻWhy me?ʼ

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the same time, the Egyptologist stumbles through the narrow streets and alleyways surrounding the great bazaar of Cairo. Anyone he passes can see the haunted look on his face. He still clutches the _Book of the Dead_ in one and the canopic jar in the other hand, just as if his life depended on these items. A few feet behind him, a hooded figure follows his every move – Imhotep, intent on getting both the book and the jar, preying on him like a lion on an antelope, watching the Egyptologist as he finally heads right into the bazaar.

One of the buildings surrounding the bazaar houses the apartment of the Egyptologist. Inside the office, a figure ransacks the whole room. He pulls out the various drawers, throws the contents on the floor, along with every single file that can possibly be found in this office. In one of the drawers he finds an ornate silver watch. After shaking it, he pockets it before heading over to the bookcases on the wall, clearing them from their contents as well.

“My, my, my!” can suddenly be heard from the doorway, causing the figure to spin around, and like Neal and Peter, we are somewhat surprised to learn that Mozzie is the thief. Though he’s kind of used to this behavior from his friend, Neal shakes his head, sighing as he steps into the room.

“Don’t tell me: You offered to do the spring cleaning, right?”

Instead of an answer, Mozzie turns, trying to make it to an open window. But Neal is faster and flings a chair into his path, causing Mozzie to trip and crash into the nearest wall. Before the bespectacled man can get his bearings, Neal is on him, grabs him, lifts him up the wall and finally gets into his face.

“So, Mozzie, any idea where your new friend might be, huh?”

Mozzie shakes. Once again, Neal is, despite the manual task, absolutely calm, and that is the most dangerous Neal in his book.

“What… what friend? What are you talking about, Neal? You…. you are my only friend.”

Mozzie hasn’t even finished the sentence when, once again, the sharp blade of Neal’s knife presses in the underside of his chin. What’s with this guy and weapons?

“Well, if that is the case, sahib, you’ve got no valid excuse for living.” Neal pauses, and for the first time, Mozzie sees a flicker of desperation in his friend’s blue eyes. “What the heck were you thinking, if you even did, buddying up with this creep?” Desperation gets replaced by a mixture of anger and lack of understanding, and all of a sudden, Mozzie gets the idea that Neal might try to save him, in this case from himself. “What’s in it for you, huh?” Neal locks his gaze with Mozzie’s, daring the shorter man to answer. “What on this Earth could be so valuable to justify everything you have done since our first run-in with this creep?”

“You ever heard of the saying, ʻIt is better to be the right hand of the Devil than in his pathʼ?” Neal shrugs; they have bigger fish to fry than to care about a random saying. “Well, as long as I serve him, I’m immune.”

“Immune from what?” Neal asks, rather stunned.

“Ah, you’ll see,” Mozzie replies nonchalantly, but that only gets him the blade of Neal’s knife deeper into his skin. If nothing else, this is a dead giveaway that Neal is done with playing games.

“All right, what are you looking for here, of all places?” For emphasis, Neal presses the blade even deeper into Mozzie’s skin. “If you lie, my friend, I have no problems in finishing the job, okay?”

Mozzie nods, feeling the cold sweat running down his face and his neck.

“Okay, the book!” Neal and Peter exchange a puzzled look. “The black book Kramer and company found in Hamunaptra. Imhotep wants it back, and he promised me its weight in diamonds.”

“And why is he so interested in that book? What does he need it for?” Neal questions, his hand steady at the side of Mozzie’s neck.

“He… he said something about his girlfriend, or lover, or something like that; he wants to bring her back. A… and… that’s why he needs the book.” For the first time, he looks over to Peter. “And your lovely wife.”

Before Peter can launch himself at Mozzie, said man knees Neal in the groin, causing the younger man to double over in pain, collapsing to the floor with a cry. Using this as a distraction, Mozzie leaps out of the open window behind him. At last, Peter comes over to Neal, holding his hand out to help him up.

“You okay?” Peter inquires, concern evident in the short question. “That looked quite painful.”

Neal gingerly gets to his feet, and he has to fight not to roll his eyes at Peter. “You know, Peter, ever since I met you at the Casbah, Lady Luck has decided to stay away from me,” he says with a wince. Of all the things that ever have happened to him, Neal decides, this is definitely the worst, and the most painful.

“Yeah, sorry.” Peter replies, rather matter-of-factly. “Ask Elizabeth.” Neal looks up at him, a puzzled look on his face. “I tend to do that to people.”

But before Neal can ask him even further, a horrifying scream comes up from the bazaar. Both men race to the window, seeing people backing away from something lying in the middle of the bazaar in fear. A closer look reveals that the lump is the Egyptologist – or better, what’s left of him, since most of his body is as shriveled as Collins’ was earlier that day. Like the people at the bazaar, Neal and Peter watch in horror as a disgusting, half-decayed hand grabs the canopic jar from the corpse – Imhotep on the job. Sensing the two Americans, he looks up to the window, a grin on his face. Suddenly, he unhinges his jaw, giving way to a huge swarm of flies. And that swarm makes a beeline for the window. Right at the last second, Neal and Peter manage to close the shutters, keeping the flies from attacking them. Instead, the flies turn and go after the people at the bazaar, which sends them all screaming and running for shelter.

Up in the office, Neal and Peter try to catch their breath, as well as coming to terms with what they just have witnessed.

“Damn it!” Neal exclaims, all of a sudden, startling Peter, who looks over to him with wide eyes. “Two down, two to go!”

Together, the two men turn away from the windows and leave the office in a hurry, racing back to the fort.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

At said place, nobody has even the tiniest inkling of what might come for them. The soldiers march around in the courtyard, one of them announcing the time. Up in the living quarters, Keller watches them from the open window, his whole body language an exquisite mixture of fear and boredom.

At long last, he turns away from the window, letting the music coming up from the Casbah streaming into the room. Next to Elizabeth’s bedroom door, which is still closed, Kramer spends the time smoking one cigar after the other. And just like Keller, his body is filled with both boredom and fear.

“Hey, Phil, I can’t stand being here any longer,” Keller suddenly says, causing the older man to look up at him. “I’m gonna head downstairs, get me a drink. You want something?” For emphasis, he points to the door.

“Yeah,” Kramer answers after taking another drag from his cigar. “Better get me a glass of bourbon, a shot of bourbon and round it up with a bourbon chaser.” They both laugh, but the nervousness keeps creeping in. “But I guess there’s not enough bourbon in the whole world to chase the images of the last few days away for good.”

Keller doesn’t say anything, he just heads out. The younger man has barely left Kramer when he reaches into one of the pockets of his jacket, pulling out another of the sought-after canopic jars. He fondles and turns it around, marveling once again about the apparent beauty of it, his mind already thinking of what to do with the money he will get for it.

All of a sudden, a breeze comes in through the window, causing the curtain to flutter. Not really caring about it, Kramer gets up, moves over to the window, intent on closing it. Before he does so, he chances a look out of the window, down to the courtyard. What he doesn’t see is a swirl of sand that all but races over the compound and straight up to the window. It grabs Kramer and lifts him into the air, ignoring his attempt to scream as well as the one to somehow break free. Whatever that is, it has quite a grip on his body, causing it to twist and turn in any imaginable unnatural way as the life force is sucked out of him. At long last, when there’s nothing left of him but a shriveled corpse, the sand releases it and lets it fall to the floor.

Suddenly, the sand (or better its shadow) kind of condenses, transforming itself into the shadow of a human body. And we realize that Imhotep has just found his next victim. As he looks up and into the mirror hanging on the wall opposite him, we see that he’s almost fully regenerated by now. And just like back in the days of Pharaoh Seti, he’s a sight to behold.

Sensing that someone else, someone special, is also close by, Imhotep steps over Kramer’s remains and up to Elizabeth’s bedroom door. He tries the doorknob, but it doesn’t budge.

Inside the room, Elizabeth is asleep on the bed, unaware of what has happened just outside her door – and what is about to happen in here in a couple of seconds. Imhotep might not be able to open a locked door, but he can pass it anyway. He transforms his body back into sand, so he can stream through the keyhole.

As if her subconscious senses the danger, Elizabeth starts to toss and turn in her sleep. Once inside the room, the sand begins to transform back into Imhotep, closing the distance to her side of the bed.

Just as he’s about to lean down and kiss her, the door flies open, revealing Peter and Neal, both of them with their guns drawn. The whole ruckus finally pulls Elizabeth from Morpheus’ arms, and she realizes in horror who’s looming over her. Ignoring everything, Imhotep leans down completely and kisses her, but just like the other day, the contact with her skin reverses the regeneration done to his face, and he’s back to the disgusting face he was before.

Seeing that so close, Elizabeth screams at the top of her lungs and shoves him away, causing Imhotep to grimace in sadness at her. Seizing the moment, Neal draws the mummy’s attention at him.

“Hey pal,” Neal yells, “get away from the girl!”

Imhotep spins around, the sadness replaced by anger at Neal, but all he does is lick his putrid lips.

“Nice lips,” Neal quips, and that finally gets Imhotep to move towards him. “You see, since I figured I might find you here, I thought I’d bring a friend with me.”

Before Imhotep can do anything else, Neal throws a white cat at him, which the former High Priest catches just out of instinct. But once he sees it, he shrieks, dropping the cat. He stumbles back to the window, which flies open just so, and finally bursts out in a whirlwind of sand, causing everyone in the room to cover their eyes. Neal, Peter and Elizabeth head over to the window, but all they see is the sand heading over the compound and into night.

At long last, the three can release the breath they are all holding, and that’s when Peter finally notices that Neal is hugging Elizabeth close to him, while she is frantically wiping her mouth. But before he can even think of a protest, Keller comes into the room, carrying two drinks. Which he immediately drops to the floor the moment his eyes land on Kramer’s corpse.

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	11. Chapter 10 – Caffrey & Burke Vs. Imhotep, Part I

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_Cairo Street_

_Later that day_

An old, convertible Duesenberg races down the street, and as we close in we see that Peter is in the driver seat, Neal and Elizabeth next to him. Almost constantly, the horn of the car can be heard. And while Peter focuses on getting them to their destination in one piece, Neal’s mind races to find a tactic on how to proceed with Imhotep. Peter’s mind, though, does some multitasking. One part is focused on driving, the other still tries to wrap itself around the fact of Neal hugging Elizabeth. Once again, it provides him with the images from the dreams. Or do these dreams have a more profound meaning? And if so, will the story repeat itself in the presence?

Next to him, Elizabeth is also busy with thinking. But unlike her husband, her thoughts are mainly wrapped around the events that just have taken place – and Neal’s reaction to Imhotep’s kiss.

“Why did you call me ʻgirlʼ?” she suddenly says into the silence, causing Neal’s head to whip around toward her and the car to swerve slightly.

“Huh?” Neal looks at her, and her eyes dare him to answer. “Oh that. Well, if you need to know, that was just, you know, a figure of speech.” His eyes look out to the road ahead of them, then back to her. “I needed him to focus on me, not on you, so I said the first thing that came to my mind.”

“Aha,” Elizabeth replies, and even though it’s just one short word, the way she says it tells Neal that she doesn’t believe him one thing he just said. “And here I thought you were jealous.”

She has barely finished when Neal bursts out in laughter. And it takes some time for him to recover, but once he does, he sees her eyes all but drilling into him, while Peter also has one eye on him. Taking a deep breath, Neal tries to explain.

“Jealous?” He points at himself. “Me and jealous?” He shakes his head. “You’ve got be kidding me. Did you see his face?” Elizabeth nods, of course she did. It’s not that difficult when the man in question is right in front of you. “In any other case, yeah, I might be inclined to be jealous, but not with a guy like him…”

Before Neal can continue, Keller leans forward from his position in the backseat, his face still filled with fear.

“Will you just shut up?” Neal turns slightly to face him. “Just shut up!” Keller had it by now. “We… we have to do something! And better sooner than later!” He points at Elizabeth. “I’m not gonna bite the dust for your mistakes!”

“Hey!” Neal and Peter yell simultaneously. “Leave her out of this!” Neal adds, his blue eyes fixing Keller in his seat, daring him to say anything else.

Just at that moment, the car pulls into the driveway of their destination – the Museum of Antiquities, and try as they all might, none of the passengers can quite repress the relief washing over them.

At the bazaar nearby, the numerous vendors are busy with their jobs, when all of a sudden a breeze comes blowing in, accompanied by a strange green mist that covers everything and everyone. As it finally settles, almost everybody starts to either cough or choke or retch, as if they all were suddenly befallen by a mysterious sickness. In the middle of them all, Imhotep appears, pretty much out of nowhere, with a very nervous Mozzie at his side. Looking at all the people, Imhotep grins, though the grin is somewhat turned into a grimace, due to the fact that his face is still half-rotten. He proceeds toward the museum, and one by one, the people stop coughing and begin to follow him.

Back at the museum, Elizabeth leads a trek of people through the museum, for the second time in not even two days. This time, the group following her consists of Peter, Neal, Keller, Hughes and Dian. Without turning around to them, Elizabeth begins to explain.

“Last month, while I was cataloging some items, I came across an inscription that mentioned the _Book of the Dead_.”

The three men behind her exchange a look, but before Peter or Neal can say anything, Keller speaks up.

“You mean the one we found in Hamunaptra?”

“Exactly,” Elizabeth answers. “Back then, I dismissed it, mostly because it talked about bringing people back from the dead.” She chuckles. “I couldn’t believe it, but now…”

“…you’d better do so,” Neal finishes for her. “’Cause that’s exactly what brought your admirer back to life.”

Elizabeth gives him a look, but before she can even form a verbal comeback in her head, Peter continues.

“And if we don’t find a way to stop him, he’ll use it to get his girlfriend back.” He shakes his head. “Man, that gives the terms ʻforever and alwaysʼ a whole new spin.”

While Neal and Keller chuckle along with Peter, Dian ignores them and picks up Peter’s first thought.

“Yeah, and if he succeeds, those two will bring about the apocalypse.”

In the meantime, they all have reached a row of display cases, where Hughes joins Elizabeth.

“All that we have seen of the plagues so far, that’s just Imhotep doing some practice. He’s flexing his muscles, if you want to call it that.” He looks at the group. “But once he has resurrected Anck-su-namun, he will be truly invincible.”

At long last, Elizabeth seems to have found whatever she was looking for, as she opens one of the cases.

“You see, I was thinking that if the black _Book of the Dead_ has the power to bring people back to life…”

“…then maybe the golden _Book of the Living_ can send them back to the underworld.” Once again, Neal finishes the sentence for her, and by the smile spreading on her face, he guessed right.

“Exactly,” El confirms. She turns to the display case, and for the first time, the others see that this one contains pieces of what seems to be an ancient stone tablet. Instinctively, they know that somewhere among those pieces the solution to their actual mummy problem is hidden.

“So, hon,” Peter begins, “are you saying that if we find, somehow, this golden _Book of the Living_ …”

“…and read the sacred incantations it contains…” Dian continues.

“…we might be able to send this Imhotep guy back to where he belongs?” Neal finishes, once again.

“Correct,” Hughes answers them, while Elizabeth is already focused on trying to decipher the hieroglyphs and hieratics on the stone pieces.

Before any of them can add anything, noises come from the outside of the museum. As it draws closer, it turns out to be some kind of chanting. Curiosity getting the better of them, they rush over to one of the upper windows, only to see a large mob crowding the driveway calling, ʻAnck-su-namun,ʼ over and over.

Dian is the first to recover from the shock they all received when they see the people covered in boils and sores.

“That’s it. It has begun.” Her voice is void of emotions. “This is the beginning of the end.”

“No, it isn’t,” Elizabeth counters, ignoring the dark look she gets from Dian for that. “Not yet. Come on.”

With that, she’s back to the display case, and in a heartbeat, she and Hughes are going through the various pieces.

In the meantime, the mob outside the museum throws themselves at the locked doors, all the time continuing their chanting. Among them, Imhotep walks up to the doors as well, intent on getting Elizabeth once and for all.

Back inside, Elizabeth suddenly exclaims, “Got it!,” in triumph, causing Neal to simply ask, “Got what?”

Before she can answer, some windows below them are shattered, while the banging gets louder and louder. Sensing that time is of the essence, Elizabeth speaks quickly while translating the piece in her hand.

“All right, according to that piece here, since the _Book of the Dead_ was found inside the statue of Anubis,” she looks over at Keller, who just nods, “the _Book of the Living_ should be inside…” She pauses, reads the inscription, translates it in her mind and smiles.

“What!?!” Neal, Keller and Peter ask at the same time, and in any other situation, Elizabeth would have found that just downright hilarious. But since they are in a bit of hurry, she stifles the laugh and finally answers the question.

“The _Book of the Living_ is inside the statue of Horus.”

“And that statue should be located not far east of the statue of Anubis,” Hughes adds.

Almost immediately, Neal groans, a pained expression flittering over his face.

“Please tell me we don’t have to go back out there,” he pleads, but his hopes are short-lived when Hughes answers.

“If you want to kill that creature, son, then yes, you have to go back.”

Another groan passes Neal’s lips, and this time, pretty much everyone in the room, sans Hughes and Dian, is more than tempted to join in.

Right at that moment, the mob succeeds in breaking down the doors, and they charge in at our heroes almost immediately. While Peter, Hughes, Elizabeth and Keller try to get away as quickly as possible, Neal and Dian attack the mob, chucking some of them over the railing and into some of the display cases below. Nonetheless, it’s clear that they have to leave the museum if they want to put some distance between the mob and themselves.

Some moments later, Peter sneaks out one of the side entrances, intent on getting to his car. All of a sudden, a group of the mob rounds the corner behind him. Thinking quickly, Peter pretends to be one of them, mostly by bugging his eyes out and chanting, ʻAnck-su-namun.ʼ Apparently, it does the trick, as the mob just passes him on their way to the main entrance. Seizing the chance, Peter jumps into the car, fires it up and does a 180 right up to a group of bushes, where the others have hidden. They all jump in, but not without being noticed by Mozzie, who just happens to step out of the museum right that moment.

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“Oh no!” he exclaims before turning back to the museum. “Imhotep! Imhotep!”

The man in question rushes to one of the shattered upper windows, only to see that Peter just pulled the car out of the driveway. Anger surges through Imhotep and fuels him enough to once again unhinge his jaw and let loose another primordial shriek.

Apparently, this shriek is kind of an order, since most of the mobs pours out of the museum, following our heroes as they race down the street and into the bazaar. Once there, they are met with another bunch of Imhotep’s disciples, which come out of pretty much every crevice in the bazaar. Except for Peter, they all try to fight them off as well as possible, but at some point, the mob manages to pull Keller out of the backdoor. Without even considering stopping, Peter continues to race the car further through the bazaar.

Keller on the other hand pretty soon gets cornered by the mob – not even firing the last rounds in his gun does him any good. All of a sudden, they part like the Red Sea, letting Imhotep walk up to him. Though he’s scared to death, Keller finally has an idea. He pulls out one of the canopic jars, in the faint hope that it might save his life. Imhotep takes it with a grin, and for a fraction of a second, Keller really believes that he might be spared. But only seconds later, his blood curling scream can be heard all over the bazaar.

In the meantime, our heroes are still on the run from the mob, though the car can’t go as fast as possible. All of a sudden, one of the ghouls crashes through the windshield, causing everyone in the car to scream at the top of their lungs. Peter slams on the gas, but instead of getting them away from the mob once more, it only gets them crashed into the nearest wall. Thinking quickly, Neal grabs Elizabeth and leaps out of the car with her.

“Come on, everybody! Let’s go, let’s go!” he yells, but they only get a few feet before they are surrounded by the mob. Neal grabs a stick of dynamite from his gunny sack, but he can’t find a way to light the match – until he sees the stubble on Peter’s cheek. Before Peter even notices it, Neal strikes the match across his cheek and holds it close to the fuse. Peter gives a yelp, but seeing that it keeps the mob at a distance somehow satisfies him. Will that be enough to give them all a chance to escape?

Their hope is short-lived once again, when the mob in front of them parts like a curtain, giving room for Imhotep to step up to them. Unlike their last meeting, there’s no speck of rotten flesh visible on the High Priest. Quite the contrary, it seems as if he finally has regenerated completely, and he’s as handsome and muscular as the day he was buried alive some four thousand years ago. Elizabeth can’t help but stare at him.

“Oh my, he’s gorgeous.”

Both Neal and Peter give her a look, but before any of them can say anything to her, Neal burns his fingers on the match. He grabs another, strikes it once again across Peter’s cheek (who sends him a death glare in return) and holds it up close to the fuse. Next to them, Hughes can’t stop shaking his head. Nothing in his whole life has him ever prepared for facing a fully regenerated mummy.

“He really has done it.” They all give him a quick look before turning back to Imhotep. “He has consummated the curse. Now he only needs to succeed in raising Anck-su-namun,” they all see Imhotep raising his eyebrows at the mention of her name, “from the dead. Then it will be the end for all of us, as well as the beginning for them to reign with terror.”

Before any of them can say a word, Imhotep steps forward, intent on closing the distance to them. Neal finally lights the fuse, just as Imhotep steps up to him, locking their gazes. Together they watch the fuse burning down, but just as it is about to vanish into the dynamite, Elizabeth steps in between them and blows it out. Neal exhales while still keeping his eyes on Imhotep. Surprising them all, the former High Priest extends his hand to Elizabeth – who is still enthralled by his handsomeness.

“Koontash dai na,” Imhotep says to her, and from the corner of his eyes, Neal sees Mozzie stepping out from the mob.

“Take his hand, and he will spare the others,” Mozzie translates, and though he can’t speak Ancient Egypt, Neal can’t shake the feeling that there’s more to Imhotep’s words than meets the eye.

Elizabeth on the other hand is still not quite sure what to do. When she lets her gaze sweep around the mob, she sees axes, picks and other dangerous tools, along with some scimitars. If she refuses Imhotep’s offer, they might be end up dead in a heartbeat. At long last, she turns to Neal.

“And? Any bright ideas from this corner?”

“Sorry, just ran out of them right now,” Neal gives back through gritted teeth, his eyes still fixed on the High Priest.

Coming to a decision, Elizabeth finally reaches out to take Imhotep’s hand. Both Neal and Peter make a move to stop her, but before they succeed, Hughes and Dian grab them, holding them in place.

“No, Elizabeth!” Neal yells, and Peter’s eyes pretty much mirror his emotions. “Don’t do it! We still can fight him!”

Elizabeth turns back to them, her whole expression a mixture of sadness and resignation.

“No, we can’t.” She swallows, locking her gaze with first Neal, then Peter. “I’m sorry, hon, but I have no choice. I just can’t let you all die.”

With that, she grabs Imhotep’s hand, which closes immediately around hers, stopping the trembling. Pulling her closer to him, Imhotep gives her a smile.

“Keetah mi pharos, aja nilo, isirlan.”

Once again, Mozzie translate the words.

“Come with me, my princess. It is time to make you mine, forever.”

He barely has finished when Elizabeth shoots daggers from her eyes at the short man.

“It’s ʻfor all eternity,ʼ you idiot,” she all but hisses at him, before turning once more to Peter and Neal, putting on her best face.

“You two better think of something, ‘cause if he turns me into a mummy…,” she pauses, intent on giving the next words a spin for the dramatic, “…you two will be the first ones I come to haunt for the rest of your lives, and then some.”

Despite the standoff, both men can’t help but smile. Elizabeth Burke truly is one of a kind.

“This lady’s got guts,” Neal says, more to Peter than to Elizabeth, yet it’s she who answers him.

“Yeah, I know. That’s why I’d like to keep them.”

All of a sudden, Imhotep notices something in one of Peter’s jacket pockets. Before any of them can react, he reaches forward and pulls it out, revealing it as the key box.

“Hey, that’s mine!” Peter exclaims, and somehow, he feels that he’s said that line way more often in the last few days than any other time in his entire life. He struggles against Dian, not just because he wants to go after Imhotep for the box, but also because the High Priest pulls Elizabeth away from them. Neal, feeling pretty much the same as Peter, can’t take it anymore, and tries to break away from Hughes’ grip.

“Elizabeth!” he yells, but his attempts are to no avail, as Hughes surprisingly has a lot of power in his body, especially for a man his age.

“Be calm,” Dian says suddenly next to him, looking back and forth between Neal and Peter. “There is still time. We still can beat him.”

In front of them, the crowd parts for Imhotep and Elizabeth. Suddenly, the High Priest stops, looking back at Neal and Peter with a smile before issuing another order at the mob.

“Pared oos,” he says, and he barely has finished when Elizabeth screams, “Noooo!” Mozzie, standing next to them, translates the order with a smile.

“Kill them.”

With that, Imhotep pulls Elizabeth into the darkness. Finally, Neal breaks free of Hughes’ grip and stumbles forward, intent on getting her back.

“Elizabeth!”

But he only gets a few feet before the mob pulls him back to where Peter, Dian and Hughes are still standing. Bending down, Neal opens a cistern in the ground, shoving Peter down inside it before jumping in after him. Hughes does the same with Dian.

“Go!” he yells after them. “Find a way! Kill the creature and save Elizabeth!” before sacrificing himself to the mob, who almost immediately starts to tear him apart.

Neal, Peter and Dian race down the catacombs, with crazies pouring in behind them. More than once, Neal has to light a fuse and throw a stick of dynamite to save their hides from the mob. At long last, the three climb out of a sewer grate quite a ways away from the bazaar.

“We gotta get her back,” Neal says, matter-of-factly, his mind already racing a mile a minute to come up with a plan to save the woman AND kill the creature.

“I’m right with you, man,” Peter agrees with a nod of his head. “No one touches my wife and gets away with it.”

If they weren’t in such dire straits, Neal might have noticed the look that accompanied the last sentence. But his mind is way too busy at the moment to take notice of such details, and so he turns to Dian.

“Any idea where he might take her?”

Dian nods, her anger at the Americans for waking the mummy slowly being replaced by respect for their attempts at righting the wrong.

“Yeah. He takes her to Hamunaptra.” Just like back at the museum, Neal and Peter groan at the mention of the cursed city in the desert. “He has to go there in order to perform the ritual.”

“Which ritual?” Peter questions, the worry in his voice mirrored in his face.

“The ritual to bring the body of Anck-su-namun back to life,” Dian answers.

“Which means what?” Neal inquires, although he somehow has a hunch that it might not end pretty for Elizabeth.

“It means that he has to read from the _Book of the Dead_ ,” Dian explains.

“Of course,” Peter agrees, glad that there might be a chance to save his wife after all.

“And then,” Dian turns to look Peter in the eye, “he kills your wife.”

“What?!” both Neal and Peter exclaim, their eyes going wide. Dian chooses to ignore them, instead she turns to Neal.

“We have to hurry, now that Imhotep is able to cross the desert with great haste.”

Peter still tries to wrap his mind around the last fact Dian gave them about the ritual. Seeking more information, he taps her on the shoulder.

“I beg your pardon, but I’m still not clear on the last part of the ritual.”

Once again, Dian ignores him, opting to talk to Neal instead.

“If he arrives there ahead of us, it will be too late.”

But Peter isn’t one to back down easily, and so he gets into her face once again.

“Did you really say he’s gonna kill my wife?”

But Dian continues to ignore him, while next to them, Neal smiles as an idea hits him.

“I know how we can beat him to it.”

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_Erfoud Dunes_

_Several hours later_

After almost a full day of complete darkness, a new day dawns on Egypt, just as our remaining heroes make their way into the desert once again. This time, they ride in Peter’s bashed-in convertible. In the distance, they can see a biplane, a remnant from WWI, sitting in the sand, next to a set of Quonset huts. As they draw closer, the insignias of the Royal Air Force are visible on the plane.

Minutes later, Peter, Neal and Dian stand in front of Hale, discussing their current dilemma with the former fighter pilot.

“So, Neal,” Hale says, “tell me what your little problem’s got to do with His Majesty’s Royal Air Corp?”

“Honestly,” Neal answers, and everyone can here the undercurrent of a challenge in his voice, “not a god-damned thing.”

Apparently, that’s exactly what Hale wanted to hear, if the intrigued look on his face is anything to go by.

“So, is it dangerous?” he inquires, his dark eyes locked on Neal.

Neal just shrugs, loving the feeling this situation gives him. For once, things are running like he wants them.

“You probably won’t live through it.”

If possible, Hale’s interest in the whole thing rises even more, as Peter and Dian can see.

“You really think so?”

“Yeah,” Peter finally inserts himself into the conversation. “Everybody else we’ve bumped into has died so far, so why should Death make an exception with you?”

The pilot just nods his head, and Neal and Peter exchange a look. They got him, hook, line, and sinker.

“So, what’s the challenge?” Hale finally asks, proving their theory to the last dot.

“Saving the damsel in distress, kill the bad guy, and steal his treasure,” Neal ticks off the steps on his fingers, a broad smile on his face. He just has finished when a similar one spreads across Hale’s face, before the Brit gives them all a snappy salute.

“Hale at your service, sir!”

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A short time later, we see a huge sand-devil dancing across some dunes in some other part of the desert. Suddenly, the whirl comes to a stop and starts to dissipate, ejecting Elizabeth and Mozzie in the process. They land in a dune nearby, just as the sand condenses and forms into Imhotep, who instantly looks up to the sky, as if he’s listening. Once again, Elizabeth has to shake sand out of her hair.

“What just happened?” The question is directed at Mozzie next to her, but for once, the short man is just as clueless as she is.

“Last thing I remember is him,” he points over to where Imhotep stands, “turning into a blast of sand… and then nothing.”

Right then, the unmistakable sounds of a plane can be heard, and it is closing in on them. They all look up, just in time to see Hale’s biplane passing over them. What they don’t see is how the four passengers are arranged in and around the plane. While Neal is riding shotgun in the gunner’s compartment of the iron bird, Peter and Dian are strapped across the wings, both screaming from fear.

Down below them, Imhotep once again unhinges his jaw, letting loose one of his horrible screams, and a huge wall of sand rises up to the altitude of the plane. Neal sees what’s coming up behind them, just like Hale, but while the younger man is joining Peter and Dian in being scared, the weathered pilot just laughs before throwing the throttle and putting the plane into a dive.

“Hang on, men!” Hale screams over the sounds, and that’s pretty much everything his passengers can do at the moment. Twisting the plane left and right, Winston tries to escape the sandstorm, but Imhotep is relentless, and so the wall of sand is inching closer and closer. Just as Neal looks back to the wall, it transforms into the giant face of Imhotep. With a grin, Neal grabs the handles of the Lewis machine gun sitting behind him, cocks the bracket and starts to fire at the face, resulting in it getting blasted away. But the triumph is short-lived, since only seconds later, the face is back, this time to unhinge its jaw and engulf the whole plane.

“We’re going down!” Hale screams from his seat, but if one would listen carefully, there’s less fear and more joy detectable in his voice than one would expect in a situation like that. With roaring engines, the plane spins inside the sand, while around them, the wind starts to howl at an inhuman volume. Up on the wings, Peter and Dian are reduced to screams, and Neal only can brace himself for the impact with the ground that’s bound to happen in the next few seconds. In the pilot seat, Hale is laughing, knowing that his ʻdreamʼ is about to come true.

“Laddies, here I come!” he screams out just as, back where they have landed, Elizabeth scrambles to her feet, intent on stopping Imhotep.

“Stop!” He doesn’t even acknowledge her, so she resorts to grabbing him by the tunic he’s wearing. “Stop it! You’ll kill them!”

Finally, the High Priest shows a reaction, if not the one Elizabeth has hoped for. He grabs her, pulls her close, his dark, intense eyes fixing her in place, rendering her immobile. Before she can even react, he kisses her. A few seconds go by before Elizabeth can push herself away from him, causing her to fall back in the sand, her mind still a whirlwind of being stunned and mesmerized at the same time. Imhotep just laughs and turns back to the matter at hand – the plane chase.

Some distance away from Elizabeth, the plane finally tumbles over some dunes before ending upside down in yet another dune. Neal is the first to recover, and with some effort, he can open the seatbelt, causing him to fall head-first from the gunner’s compartment. Next to him, we see one of the wings, apparently jammed into the dune. It’s the wing Peter was strapped on, and after sputtering and coughing up sand, Elizabeth’s husband finally can focus on their young companion.

“Neal!” The man in question looks around, still a bit stunned from the crash. “A little help?” Peter shrugs his hands, indicating that he’s still bound to the wing. “If it’s not too much trouble!”

At last, Neal scrambles to his feet, his senses finally back in working order. While he cuts off the straps with his bowie knife, Dian comes over to them. But instead of helping them, she goes straight for the gunner’s compartment and rips the Lewis machine gun off its mount. Satisfied, she throws it over one shoulder, followed by a cartridge belt that goes over her other, before staggering away. Neal finally has managed to free Peter and now makes his way over to the cockpit. But there’s nothing they can do, Hale is dead, a smile gracing his face.

Suddenly, the whole plane starts to move, while sand beneath their feet starts to sink. As quickly as possible, Peter and Neal get away, over to some solid rocks where Dian is already standing. They can only watch as the plane slides away over a dune. Just as it is about to vanish from their sight, Neal gives it a final salute, with Peter following suit.

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	12. Chapter 11 – Caffrey & Burke Vs. Imhotep, Part II

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_Hamunaptra_

Neal, Peter and Dian stagger down a ravine that leads into the volcano. Stopping midway, the three look out over the ruins of the City of the Dead.

“So,” Neal begins, “we need to find that Horus guy, right?” Next to him, Peter nods. “What does that guy look like?”

“He’s a big fellow,” Peter starts to explain, “with pointy ears, and the face resembles a falcon.”

“Got it,” is all that Neal gives as answer, but for now, that has to last.

A short time later, we see them making their way down a winding, narrow staircase, all of them ʻarmedʼ with torches. Their destination is the bowels of the necropolis, also known as a passageway straight to hell.

Up ahead of them, Imhotep leads Elizabeth down another hallway leading down to the underground cemetery. At the sight of big, hairy rats scurrying around, Elizabeth has to use every ounce of willpower not to recoil, but the rifle that Mozzie presses into her back is quite a help at that task.

“Keep moving,” the short man all but hisses at her, but if he thought that’s what it takes to render her obedient, he’s definitely wrong.

With a look that might be able to kill a human, she turns around toward him, her voice carrying the same venom as her eyes.

“You know, fellows like you, they always get their comeuppance. Especially when they are as nasty as you are.”

“Yeah, you think so?” Mozzie returns, but try as he might, he can’t quite keep the sudden worry from lacing his voice. What if both Neal and this woman here are right? But as suddenly as the thought has appeared, it vanishes from his mind, and all that Elizabeth gets is an indifferent shrug.

“Oh, yeah,” Elizabeth answers, “always.” Once again, she pauses, her eyes trained on the ground, in order to keep her from stumbling over anything that might lie in their path. “I can’t believe that you and Neal are friends,” she adds as an afterthought.

Mozzie doesn’t answer her, but now, he’s really worried, causing him to chew on his lip. What if he really made a mistake by helping Imhotep?

In the meantime, the trio has made it to the chamber we have last seen at the beginning of our tale, where Imhotep met his fate back in time. Crossing an old wooden bridge, Elizabeth makes the mistake of looking over the railing – and straight into the still disgusting detritus moat. Scared almost out of her wits, she shrinks back, yet she can’t tear her eyes away from the dark muck with the horrendous stench.

In another passageway, Neal and Dian are busy digging through an apparently collapsed doorway. Standing guard behind them, Peter suddenly notices something on the far wall. Leaning closer, he recognizes it as an amethyst scarab. Curiosity getting the better of him, Peter tries to jiggle it free, which happens at last. The scarab falls into his hand, and right as it hits his skin, it starts to glow, and inside, something starts to wiggle, as if it wants to break free.

“Hey, fellows!” Peter yells in the general direction of Neal and Dian. “I think you should take a look at this!”

But before any of them two even can decide to come over to him, the scarab breaks out of the cocoon, instantly burrowing itself into Peter’s palm. Understandably, he freaks out and starts to scream. At long last, Neal runs up to him, and rips the arm from his shirt, only to see the scarab making its way up his arm.

Seeing no other solution, Neal whips out his butterfly knife, but instead of giving Peter some solace or hope, the sight of it only amplifies his horror. Ignoring him, Neal cuts his arm open, and finally flicks the scarab over to the far end of the passageway. But the bug isn’t one to give up easily. Barely landing on its feet, it scrambles back toward Peter, intent on finishing the job. Feeling frustration welling up inside him, Neal grabs his gun, points at the scarab and blows it back to hell.

At the cemetery, Elizabeth feels a spark of hope at hearing the gunshot reverberating from the walls. Apparently, her heroes survived the plane crash and are now on the way to rescue her. In front of her, we see the same altar where, back in time, Imhotep tried to resurrect Anck-su-namun.

Imhotep, standing at the altar, also hears the gunshot, but unlike Elizabeth, his reaction only consists of a scowl. Apparently, these Americans are harder to get rid off than it initially seemed. Well, there will be time to deal with them, but not before he has finished his main task.

Reaching into one of the canopic jars lined up in front of him, he pulls out a crusted lump – the remains of Anck-su-namun’s heart. He crushes it to dust in his hand while opening the _Book of the Dead_ and starts reading an incantation from it. When he’s finished, he blows the dust in his hand toward one of the walls of the mausoleum. As Elizabeth and Mozzie observe, wide-eyed, said wall suddenly comes to life, setting two of Imhotep’s priests free after an eternity. Like the High Priest was himself, these two are too horrifying to look at, with their mummified, half-rotten corpses. Almost immediately, the priests bow to Imhotep. Apparently, he has given them a silent command, as they turn and head down one of the various passageways.

Back to our heroes. They still are in the passageway, and while Dian is mending Peter’s wound and dressing it, Neal paces in front of them, somewhat angry. All of a sudden, he crouches down to Peter’s eyelevel, his blue eyes sparkling with fire.

“Listen, Peter, I get it.” He exchanges a look with Dian, who gets up and begins digging, giving the two men some kind of privacy. “She’s a beautiful woman, and if she were mine, I would also move Heaven and Earth to save her.” He sighs, his whole body sagging slightly as the anger leaves him. “But you’re no help to her if you keep touching everything, got me?” He fixes Peter with a stare, and the older man only can nod. “And I haven’t survived everything so far only to get killed by her.” He pauses again, and now Peter can see a glint of humor in Neal’s eyes. “Which I’m absolutely sure she’s able to do.” And just like that, the tension between them is broken, both of them chuckling at Neal’s last sentence.

Grabbing Peter’s good hand, Neal hauls him to his feet and steers him towards Dian – but not without one last piece of advice.

“So, Peter, in the future, just keep your hands off the furniture, will ya?”

Peter only can nod, his mind still reeling from the recent events – and from the words of his young friend.

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Back in the mausoleum, Imhotep is busy with the preparations for the resurrection ceremony. The High Priest is still rooted at the altar, and while he puts the last finishes to his handiwork, he speaks in Hebrew.

To the side, Mozzie holds Elizabeth at gunpoint. But apparently, the man is a master of multitasking, since he’s also translating pretty much everything Imhotep is saying to her.

“Prince Imhotep wants your heart.”

Despite everything, Elizabeth feels something coursing through her body at the words. Deep down, she knows it’s wrong, she’s a married woman, but what girl, in her right mind, would say no to a man as handsome as the Priest?

“Tell him that I’m truly flattered, I really am, but I have to disappoint him. My heart is already taken.”

In the meantime, Imhotep has set out the four canopic jars in a special formation around the shattered one, all the while still talking in Hebrew.

“He also wants your brain, and your liver, and your kidneys…” Mozzie continues, and all of a sudden, Elizabeth realizes that she’s just a means to an end, that the Priest isn’t actually interested in her, only in using her to bring his true love back to life. “…and those slimy things you have in your stomach.” For emphasis, Mozzie gestures to his own belly, and that’s enough to bring Elizabeth back to reality.

“You mean my intestines?” she asks with a shudder.

“Yeah, exactly,” Mozzie answers, but before he can say anything more, Elizabeth whips her head over to Imhotep, anger now the primary emotion coursing through her veins.

“So you just want me for my organs? Use them to get your girl back?”

But instead of an answer, Imhotep just grins at her – before backhanding her. Doing a little spin, Elizabeth drops back, lights out for the time being. Giving her one last cold look, Imhotep finally heads off in the general direction of the other mausoleums. Mozzie, on the other hand, seizes the opportunity of nobody watching him and scurries away in the other direction.

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In the meantime, our heroes have put some distance behind them. Right now, they squeeze through a narrow crevice in the wall, with Neal in the lead. He drops down to the floor of what seems to be yet another chamber with next to no light. While Peter and Dian come in behind him, Neal spots a small sliver of light coming from a small hole in the ceiling. Next to where it hits the wall is a small mirrored disk, just like back in the Embalmer’s Chamber. With one shot from his gun, Neal manages to reposition it so that the light fills the whole room – and renders them all speechless. In front of their eyes is what every scholar would deem to be the wealth of Ancient Egypt. There’s not one single part of the room that doesn’t sparkle or shine. Old wooden crates, filled to the brim with jewelry, line the room, while towards the middle, the treasure is just collected in piles. It’s a sight to behold, and probably the reason for them not noticing the two mummified priests that have entered the room.

“Whoa!” Neal exclaims all of a sudden, his gun trained on the priests. “Who the hell are these two nasty guys?”

“Priests,” Dian says as she sidles up to him. “To be more exact, Imhotep’s priests.”

One sentence, but that’s enough to send Neal to grab the elephant gun from his gunny sack.

“Well, to be honest, I’ve never killed a priest before.”

But Dian just shrugs before preparing the machine gun for the fight.

“Don’t worry.” She looks up and Neal’s expression urges her to explain. “They are evil creatures. Like Imhotep himself, they were cursed back in the day. They matter not.”

Apparently, her answer is enough for Neal, at least for the time being.

“Well, okay then,” he says with a shrug before firing the elephant gun at the mummies. With this first shot, he manages to blast the upper torso away from the first one. Shot number two takes care of the second mummy, or its upper body, to be precise. But to their surprise, the legs of the mummies seem to have a life of their own, as they continue their approach to them.

“Oh, come on!” Neal exclaims. “Gimme me a break here, will ya?” he says in the direction of the legs, as if that would stop them. Next to him, but fortunately unnoticed by the young man, Dian and Peter exchange a slightly amused look upon his antics. Right that moment, the torsos also start to come back to life and towards our heroes, who are once again rendered to running for their lives, but not without firing some shots at the mummified body halves.

Back in the altar room, Imhotep slowly gets impatient at the Americans, who seem to have made it their goal to keep interrupting his work. Angrily, he pulls out what remained of Anck-su-namun’s liver from one of the jars. Like with the heart, he crushes it to dust in his hand, reads another passage from the _Book of the Dead_ and blows the dust away, this time in the direction of a passageway, sending it on a collision course with Neal and Peter, so to speak.

“Kill them! Kill them all!” Imhotep orders the dust in Ancient Egyptian. “And bring me the _Book of the Living_!”

Back to our heroes in the treasure chamber. They still try to back away from the mummy pieces, when all of a sudden, the dust blows into the chamber and the floor in front of them comes alive, just like the walls, and the piles of gold littering the place. From pretty much every direction, mummies come out, intent on getting to Neal, Peter and Dian. Once again, Neal lifts his elephant gun, but before he can fire a shot, Dian stops him with a hand on his arm.

“May I?” she inquires, lifting the Lewis gun.

Neal only nods, and while she’s firing round after round at the mummies, he prepares to take over from her, especially as he notices that the bullets barely slow down their assailants. Both Neal and Dian keep firing their guns as they all three back into the passageway, with the mummies and mummy pieces hot on their heels. Just at that moment, Mozzie creeps into the chamber. Like the others before, he’s stunned by seeing all the wealth.

In the altar room, Elizabeth finally comes around – only to find herself chained to the top of the altar. Confused, she looks around, and when she turns her head to the side, she’s met with another mummy. This time it’s Anck-su-namun, and just like every other mummy Elizabeth has run into so far, her face is just a rotted, disgusting thing. With a scream, she turns away, but there’s only so far she can go, with the chains holding her in place.

Back in the passageway, Neal and Dian keep firing at the mummies, but they are relentless, well, one could say there’s even some kind of method to this madness.

“Is it just me or is this whole place comin’ alive with them?” Neal asks, and the silence from his companions that follows his question is answer enough.

Just as they are about to reach another chamber, Dian has to give up.

“I’m out,” she says, matter-of-factly, and for emphasis, she holds up the Lewis gun before throwing it to the floor.

Finally, they make it into the chamber, which is quite a small one, compared to the huge treasure chamber.

“There he is!” Peter exclaims, and right then, Neal and Dian notice the huge statue, or better the lower half of it, standing in the middle of the chamber.

“And he is?” Neal inquires, but instead of giving an answer, Peter just runs up to the base of the statue.

“Hello, Horus! Long time no see, my old boy!” he says to the statue, and on any other day, Neal just would have labeled him downright crazy for talking to a statue. But desperate times call for desperate measures, and if talking to a man made of stone helps Peter somehow, well, who’s Neal to say differently?

Right that moment, the mummies hunting them have made it to the chamber as well, and once again, fighting is in order. With barely any ammunition to their guns remaining, Neal resorts to stronger weapons, a stick of dynamite to be precise. Just as he’s about to light it, Dian taps him on the shoulder.

“Allow me,” she says, her voice a perfect mix of order and request, with a dash of coyness.

Before Neal even can answer her, she grabs the stick, along with the match. Like he did back at the bazaar with Peter, Dian now strikes the match across Neal’s stubbly cheek. And like Peter, Neal can’t help but yelp. With a smile on her face, Dian lights the fuse of the dynamite and throws it down the passageway, just as quite a lot of mummies head down it. The explosion takes them all apart, and more important, it causes the passageway to cave in, closing it off. Now they only have one way out – another dark, creepy passageway. Well, it could have been worse.

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Back in the cemetery, Elizabeth struggles against the chains holding her down on the altar. Suddenly, the altar is surrounded by Priest mummies, causing her to stop her efforts. They kneel down and begin to chant – or whatever you would call it, since they all are missing either their tongues, their jaws or their lips.

Imhotep finally steps up to the altar, holding the black _Book of the Dead_. He stops at the head of Anck-su-namun’s corpse, letting his hand glide over her cheek, a silent promise that they will be reunited shortly.

In Horus’ Chamber, Peter and Neal are digging and tugging at the secret compartment, like its counterpart hidden beneath the feet of the giant statue. Right as it starts to give way, Dian spots another group of mummies coming into the room. Neal does also, but before he can even react, Dian grabs the elephant gun, a handful or two of shells and heads off, towards the mummies, yelling, “Keep digging!” over her shoulder.

Doing as they were told, Neal and Peter double their efforts, and the compartment gives a bit more way. All of a sudden, a skeletal hands shoots out of the sandy floor, grabbing Neal’s ankle. Two more mummies come out of the sand, and while they occupy Neal and Peter in a struggle, the third pulls hard at the compartment – which results in all three of them getting sprayed by the same salt acid liquid as the diggers did previously. Neal and Peter are freed by this, but seeing the mummies getting melted definitely gives the two of them the creeps.

Back in the cemetery, Imhotep, standing between Elizabeth’s and Anck-su-namun’s heads, starts reading from the _Book of the Dead_ , causing the detritus bog to swirl. Though she’s horrified, Elizabeth also is a bit amazed, seeing things she never ever considered to be real with her own eyes.

Over in the chamber, Neal and Peter pull an ornate chest from the compartment. Wasting no time, Neal rips off the lid and pulls out another burlap bag. He and Peter exchange a look, a mix of excitement and nervousness. Finally, Neal reaches into the bag and pulls out the golden _Book of the Living_. They both stare at it in wonder, the meager light in the room enough to let the golden surface of the book reflect in their faces. Right that moment, Dian runs out of ammunition. She turns the gun and swings the butt of it into the oncoming mummies. Looking over at Neal, they lock gazes, and right as the mummies start to tear at her clothes, Dian gives one last order to the young American.

“Save the girl!” Neal nods. “And kill the creature!”

Grabbing the last of his dynamite sticks, Neal uses it to blow a new hole in the wall, giving him and Peter a new exit in the process. Without looking back, the two men head over to the cemetery, intent on finishing Dian’s final requests.

At the cemetery, Imhotep still reads from the black book, when suddenly the swirl of the bog below them turns into a mist, which makes his way over the canopic jars, through Elizabeth’s body and finally ends up in Anck-su-namun’s corpse. Elizabeth barely has time to recover from the shock of the passing mist, which is pretty much the same as being electrocuted, when the crusted eyes of the corpse next to her spring open and the mummy looks at her with her empty eye sockets. Naturally, she freaks out, but only until she spots Imhotep holding an ancient sacrificial knife, which is a bit too close for her comfort.

“With your death, my love and I will be invincible!” Imhotep drones in Ancient Egypt while he raises the knife over Elizabeth’s chest, intent on plunging it down. Just as her eyes widen in horror at her imminent death, Neal and Peter burst in, stopping Imhotep.

Elated that they made it just in time, Peter holds up the golden book for his wife to see – not quite the best idea, as it should turn out.

“We found it, El! We found it!”

“Hon,” Elizabeth shouts back, “shut up and get me the heck off of here, will you?”

Neal, always a man of action, looks around for a suitable weapon, and at last, his eyes fall on another ancient statue holding a sword. He grabs the weapon, jumps onto one of the gravestones, leaps over the priests, who stop chanting, before striking the knife out of Imhotep’s hand. Angry at those pesky Americans, the High Priest bellows a command at his priests, who immediately turn to attack Neal, armed with knives and swords.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, tries to get her husband to help her – not in getting free, but in killing Imhotep.

“Hon,” she yells, “open the book!” She locks gazes with Peter over the distance. “That’s the only way to get rid of him!”

Next to her, Neal keeps fighting off the priests, while Peter, still located near the exit, keeps trying to open the book, but somehow, it won’t budge.

“I can’t open it, El!” he yells over to her, desperation lacing his voice. “It’s locked or something!”

Just as Neal manages to break one of the chains holding Elizabeth in place in two, Peter has an epiphany as his gaze falls upon a series of solid gold, four-sided locks along the binder. He smiles, glad that he could connect the dots on his own.

“I got it, hon! We need the key!”

Apparently, Imhotep is able to understand modern-day English, since he holds up the key he has on a chain around his neck with a smile before ripping it off and shoving it into a pocket of his robe. At last, he grabs the sacrificial knife and heads for Peter.

Scared out of his wits, Peter’s eyes dart between the High Priest and his wife, unsure of what to do.

“What do I do, El?” He clutches the book to his chest and tries to back off from the approaching priest. “What do I do?”

“Hon,” she yells just as Neal breaks another chain, this time one around her ankle, “read the inscription!” She doesn’t see Peter, and yet she can feel his onset of confusion all the way over here. “The inscription on the cover!”

Doing as he’s told, Peter starts to translate and read the inscription, but unfortunately, his ancient Egyptian is more than bit rusted.

“Keetash-something, naraba-something…” He heads further into the cemetery, intent on putting some distance between him and Imhotep. “…Ebarra im hatu Kashka…. now what’s that supposed to mean?” He says as he sees the next hieroglyph, but before he can rack his brain for its meaning, he trips and falls on his ass, just as Imhotep charges forward at him.

Back at the altar, Neal finally succeeds to fight off the mummy priests and slashes the last chain, freeing Elizabeth just as Imhotep raises the sword to deliver the killing blow at Peter, who abruptly realizes what the last hieroglyph stands for, and with a small smile he finishes reading the inscription.

“Rasheem Aaaaa Anubis!”

Peter has barely finished when, next to them, the giant statue of Anubis breaks through the wall, staring them all down with his horrible stone face.

“Oh boy,” Peter quips, taking a deep breath to calm himself down. Neal also sees this new arrival, and while he decapitates yet another mummy, he can’t help but have his say.

“This just keeps getting better and better.”

Imhotep gets away from Peter, heading for Anubis instead. Elizabeth is about to head over to her husband when Anck-su-namun grabs her with a skeletal hand, spins her around and starts fighting her. The High Priest has reached the statue and points the sword at Neal before commanding Anubis in ancient Egyptian to attack him.

“Peter!” Neal yells while he backs away from Anubis. “Do something!” He stumbles over the graves. “God damn, kill it!”

Peter only can shake his head. Is he a miracle worker or what?

“Are you kidding me?!” he yells back, but every further protest is stopped by Elizabeth’s words.

“Just finish the inscription!” she yells in between two of Anck-su-namun’s attacks.

Without so much as an “Oh!” for an answer, Peter turns back to the cover, but once again, they all might end up dead due to his poor ancient Egyptian knowledge.

“Ummm, Hootash-im, Hootash-im… what’s the meaning for the last symbol here?”

“Hon!” Elizabeth yells. “What does it look like?”

“It’s an Anck symbol, with two little squiggly lines above it and a bird, I guess it’s a stork, on either side,” Peter describes his problems, for some moments unaware of the problems around him. Anck-su-namun has Elizabeth by the throat, intent on strangling her, while Anubis finally has cornered Neal and is about to crush him with its giant talons.

“Ah… Ah… Ahmenophus!” Elizabeth gets out.

“Yeah! That’s it!” Peter exclaims, and just as the bad guys are about to deliver the final blows to Neal and Elizabeth, he finishes the inscription: “Hootash im Ahmenophus!”

Almost immediately, both Anubis and Anck-su-namun freeze, giving Neal and Elizabeth the chance to get free. Due to the inscription, the giant statue is off balance, and as our heroes watch, it tips back, crushing Anck-su-namun to dust as it crashes to the floor.

As he sees his love dying for a second time, Imhotep screams in horror and rage. He turns on his heels and heads once again for Peter, who in turn starts to scramble away on his heels and hands. Neal gets to his feet, grabs his sword and heads over to Peter’s aid. Just as he arrives at his side, Imhotep grabs Peter, rips the golden book from his hands and pins him to a wall. With a sweep of his sword, Neal cuts Imhotep’s right arm off, which is still holding the book. While it drops to the ground, Imhotep spins around and faces a smiling Neal.

“So, let’s see how you’re doing without your right arm, shall we?”

Imhotep’s answer is to grab Neal, throwing him halfway across the cemetery, where he slams into one of the gravestones before landing hard on the floor. Not ready to give up, he gets up back again, shrugging as he does so.

“Okay, that means he’s left-handed.”

At the other end of the room, Peter looks up at his approaching wife, a bright smile on his face. Before Elizabeth can ask what got him into such good mood, he holds up the chain with the key/box.

“I got it!”

For a second, Elizabeth joins him in smiling, before squatting down next to him. Together, they get the key working in opening the book, all the while Neal and Imhotep fight each other through the whole cemetery. Just as Imhotep has Neal by his throat and is about to squeeze his final breath out of him, Elizabeth’s voice carries over to the two men.

“Kadeesh mal! Kadeesh mal! Pared oos! Pared oos!“

Spinning around, Imhotep fixes Elizabeth with a gaze, while his face fills with terror. They all know instinctively that something very bad is about to happen. And it really does. The liquid in the bog starts to swirl and bubble, giving way to the spirits of the Ancient Egyptian Gods. They first swirl around the remaining mummies of his priests, who collapse and turn to dust, before making their way over to Imhotep. The spirits attack the High Priest, lifting him and Neal up, but fortunately, Imhotep lets go of the American almost immediately and Neal drops to the ground in a heap.

Backing away from the spirits, Peter stumbles and falls, causing the _Book of the Living_ slipping from his grasp and right into the detritus bog. The spirits, on the other hand, keep twisting and turning Imhotep around in mid-air, before they spit him out and drop him to the ground. Apparently, they haven’t done anything to him, but then Neal swings his sword at him, catching Imhotep in his chest with the tip. Blood wells up at the cut, and they all realize that the former High Priest is now mortal – and therefore easier to kill. Not wasting any time, Neal runs up at Imhotep, driving the blade of his sword into the other man’s body up to the hilt. Imhotep looks down at the sword, his expression a mixture of amazement and horror. Then he stumbles back, right into the detritus moat.

Elizabeth and Peter run up to Neal, catching him by the arms as the younger man begins to sway slightly. The three watch as Imhotep slowly sinks into the fetid swamp. Just before he completely vanishes in the black liquid, he looks up at them, a broad grin on his face, before giving them his dying words in Ancient Egyptian. He vanishes from their sight, and Elizabeth translates.

“Death is only the beginning.”

Before they can contemplate the meaning of these words, the whole cemetery starts to shake, and around them, the walls seem to descend into the sand.

“Come on!” Neal yells and grabs Elizabeth by the hand, leading her and Peter out of the room. They make it over to the treasure chamber, where they run into Mozzie. Together, the quartet manages to get out of the sinking maze just in time. At long last, the four come to a stop on a plateau, surrounded by some of the stray camels they saw when they came here the first time. In front of them, the whole set of ruins slowly vanishes below the sand, taking all its secrets and treasures with it.

“Well,” Peter says when his heart has stopped beating so hard, “I guess we all go home empty-handed after all.”

“I wouldn’t say that,” both Neal and Mozzie say, and while Neal just winks at Peter and Elizabeth, Mozzie points over to one of the camels, where he has already deposited a saddlebag full of treasure.

“I…,” Mozzie begins, locking gazes with Neal, Elizabeth and Peter. “I’m sorry, for pretty much everything I’ve done.” He takes a breath. “And I’m willing to share my loot with all of you, as a means of compensation.”

Before any of them can say anything, he climbs up onto the camel. Neal and Peter follow suit, and for the first time since the beginning of their adventure, Peter doesn’t mind that Neal pulls Elizabeth on the camel behind him. At long last, the four head out of the volcano, riding off into the sunset. They all don’t notice Dian, who has made it out of the ruins as well, standing on top of a dune, watching them leave.

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	13. Epilogue – The Legacies Of Egypt

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_New York City_

_Five years later_

Standing on the small landing between the first and the second floors, Neal Caffrey watches the three most important people in his life bustling around beneath him. Peter heads from the kitchen to the library, his arms filled with stacks of books. Ahead of him, Elizabeth is sitting at the big wooden desk, nose buried deep into yet another heavy tome. The saying ʻOnce a librarian, always a librarianʼ comes to Neal’s mind.

From the general direction of the main entrance, the pitter-patter of a pair of young feet breaks the silence. Seeing the little boy running around with June’s elder grand-daughter Cindy in pursuit, Neal can’t help but smile at his antics.

The boy vanishes from his sight, and Neal is left to his own devices. Of its own volition, his mind takes a trip down memory lane, recollecting all the events since the end of their Egyptian adventure.

Once they made it back to Cairo safe and sound, Mozzie kept his word and split his treasure with them, square and fair. Ever since then, they get a postcard, a telegram or any other kind of notification that he’s well, wherever he roams.

For the next few days, they recharged their batteries in June’s Cairo mansion before heading back to the States. In exchange for everything Neal had done for them, Peter talked to a friend with the Department of Justice and cleared the young man from the charges that drove him to join the French Foreign Legion in the first place.

Once stateside, June had another surprise already waiting for them. Being the clever woman she was, Neal’s surrogate mother had invested both her family fortune and the money she inherited from her husband Byron in mansions spread half-way across the world. And since both her daughters were living in London with their families, she decided that she wanted to spend her days closer to them and moved to the banks of the Thames.

Schinasi Mansion was everything one could ask for. Enough room for each of them, close enough to the heart of the city to reach everything in a short time. Neal couldn’t exactly pinpoint when it had happened the first time, but somewhere between coming back to Cairo and settling in New York, the three of them ended up in a bed together, spending a marvelous night of passion.

And that night resulted nine months later in the birth of their son, William George Burke. Officially, he is Peter and Elizabeth’s son, but he had quite a lot of character treats and features from Neal as well.

“Hey, Neal.” Peter’s voice drifts up from the floor below, and brings him out of his reverie. Neal looks down, and the amused expression on Peter’s face tells him that the other man has watched him for several seconds, at least.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Neal inquires while descending the rest of the stairs.

“Ah, nothing.” Peter shrugs. “I just wanted to make sure you’re not growing roots up there.” He points up to the landing where Neal was just standing. “What were you thinking?”

“Everything,” Neal answers, his voice a bit choked up.

“Hey, you okay?” Peter inquires, the caring side of him taking over. Neal doesn’t answer, he just drops his head.

Always being the one to get an answer, Peter puts a finger under the younger man’s chin, giving it a tip up until he can look into Neal’s blue eyes.

“What’s up, Neal, huh?”

“Nothing, Peter, it’s just…” Neal pauses, and in that moment, Peter sees tears swimming in his lover’s eyes. “When I was in that Egyptian prison, I never, ever would have dreamed that I would be able to return to the States. Or that the charges against me would be dropped anytime soon. And yet, I’m here, as a free man, with a beautiful family on top of that.” Neal heaves a sigh. “Sometimes, I think it’s just a dream, and all I can do is wait to wake up and go back to the miserable, dangerous life I had back then.”

Peter doesn’t answer him straight away; instead he pulls the younger man into a hug. Elizabeth looks up from her book just in time to see that hug and, being the curious woman she was all her life, she gets up and goes to investigate.

“Hey, boys, everything’s all right here?”

“Yeah,” Neal says, even though he wipes at his eyes. “Yeah, it is. Now.” Seeing the question in her eyes, he continues. “Let’s just say I had a moment of not believing my life right now. But thanks to Peter here, I know that it’s not a dream.” For emphasis, Neal just gives Elizabeth, then Peter, a kiss.

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Later that day, the trio is lying in the big bed of the main bedroom. Neal feels like a human sandwich, with Peter spooning up behind him and Elizabeth in all her beauty in front of him. Working like a well-oiled machine, the two make sure to remind their lover of the wonderful, yet unconventional lifestyle they are leading now.

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End file.
